Airline pilot Lee Patterson ('The Counterfeit Plan', 'The Good Die Young') comes back home to an empty house, and judging by the milk bottles left by their front door, she's been away for a few days. Not thinking too much of it, he goes to bed. The next morning he's woken up early by a cop, who claims his car had been in an accident that night. Patterson says it must've been his wife, and the cop asks to see the garage, where they find the dented car, to Patterson's surprise. Even worse, they find his wife murdered with a knife in her back in her studio. Of course that puts Patterson at the top of police inspector Geoffrey Keen's ('Portrait Of Alison', several Bond movies) list of suspects, esp after it's revealed the marriage was anything but happy and she had had her fair share of affairs. By marrying Patterson, she had put a promising dancing career on hold, which caused tension. Together with family friend and airline hostess (and British scream queen) Barbara Shelley, Patterson tries to reconstruct his wife's last days to find the real killer.
At less than an hour, the movie flies by. Director (and co-writer of the screenplay) Lawrence Huntington ('The Upturned Glass') keeps things moving at a rapid pace, but can't hide the plot holes and conveniences in the storyline. Which I could've forgiven more easily had the movie looked killer, but unfortunately DoP Eric Cross ('Hunted') gives the movie a TV-like appearance, keeping the rich shadows only for the finale. Maybe that's because while it was shown as a second feature in the UK, it aired almost immediately after release on US television as part of 'Kraft Mystery Theater'. In any case, the lack of interesting visuals doesn't exactly help this movie. It's got some decent performances and does the job, but with its sloppy story and unimaginative direction and lighting, it's hard to recommend this one. 6/10
