Jill Esmond is a parson's widow. Her daughter, Carol Marsh, is an aspiring writer with a fine collection of rejection slips. Her son, Jack Watling, works for the surveyor's office. He has just prepared a report on the project they live in, saying the construction is bad and the pipes are worse. He asks her to put it away while he goes to London to take a test. Instead, she reads it. Then she goes to a town council meeting, where she complains about the rattling, jerry-built houses and suggests that someone's bank account is fat because of it. Under threat of eviction, the loss of her son's job, and lawsuit for slander, she agrees to publicly retract the statement.... until ex-doctor and current local newspaper publisher Gerard heinz talks to her. She tears up the statement publicly, and the council decides they must sue.
Then typhoid hits the council houses.
It's a remarkably powerful story of commonplace corruption in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. The mayor is her brother-in-law; her son is engaged to to the surveyor's daughter; everyone is on the take, with varying degrees of deniability -- that magic word. Miss Esmond looks worn and weary and vague. It's not brilliantly shot, but the good script and calm, warm performances make this a must-see movie.
