GIRL IN THE NEWS (aka: GIRL IN THE CASE) (director: Carol Reed; screenwriters: Sidney Gilliat/from the novel by Roy Vickers; cinematographer: Otto Kanturek; editor: R.E. Dearing; music: Louis Levy; cast: Margaret Lockwood (Anne Graham), Barry K. Barnes (Stephen Farringdon), Emlyn Williams (Tracy), Roger Livesey (Bill Mather), Margaretta Scott (Judith Bentley), Wyndham Goldie (Edward Bentley), Basil Radford (Doctor Threadgrove), Irene Handl (Gertrude Mary Blaker), Mervyn Johns (James Fetherwood), Betty Jardine (Elsie), Kathleen Harrison (Cook), Felix Aylmer (Prosecuting Counsel), Mervyn Johns (James Fetherwood); Runtime: 77; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Edward Black/Maurice Ostrer; VCI Entertainment; 1940-UK)
“Looks like an Agatha Christie mystery.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Carol Reed (“Odd Man Out”/”The Fallen Idol”/”The Third Man”) cleverly directs this taut B film courtroom drama that looks like an Agatha Christie mystery. It’s written by Sidney Gilliat and is based on the novel by Roy Vickers. The top-notch ensemble cast all put in good performances.

Private RN Anne Graham (Margaret Lockwood) is acquitted of overdosing with sleeping pills her whiny elderly bed-bound patient Gertrude Mary Blaker (Irene Handl) and under a new name is hired by Judith Bentley (Margaretta Scott) to care for her much older wheelchair-bound invalid husband Edward (Wyndham Goldie). When he’s found murdered in the same way Anne’s first patient died, Scotland Yard detective Bill Mather (Roger Livesey) arrests Anne. The framed nurse was unaware that Mrs. Bentley and the butler Tracy (Emlyn Williams) were lovers and schemed what they thought the perfect murder. But Anne’s former lawyer and love interest, Stephen Farringdon (Barry K. Barnes), is able to smash the prosecutor’s barrage of circumstantial evidence with the threat of putting a blind barber (Mervyn Johns) on the stand to identify the killer.

REVIEWED ON 10/14/2008 GRADE: B

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

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