Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

l_rawjalaurence THE TECKMAN MYSTERY is the kind of programmer that routinely appears on television but regularly released in cinemas in the Forties and Fifties. It concerns a writer, Philip Chance who is asked to write a book about a recently-deceased pilot Martin Teckman. Initially reluctant to do so, he is drawn into a web of intrigue, organized by Martin's sister (Margaret Leighton), in which Martin is revealed to be not dead at all but the victim of a conspiracy that leads to his attempt to kill himself.The film offers some good exterior shots of mid-Fifties London, with mercifully less traffic but plenty of secret areas where corruption thrives. The cast don't have too much to do with their roles: Justin acts the part of the debonair writer in more danger than he thinks, while Leighton is marginally too old for her role. Lovers of Fifties curiosities will note that this thriller is directed by a woman, Wendy Toye, one of the few British women to be operative at that time.

lucyrfisher This is based on a story by Francis Durbridge, so we can sit back and enjoy an episodic tale with a twist every ten minutes, in a setting of luxury, cocktails and ever-present cigarettes. Everybody has a fag in their hand the entire time. Roland Culver and Raymond Huntley are always worth watching, and I liked the dry inspector and the bouncy valet. Never mind the plot (actually do, it's a great Durbridge plot), writer Philip Chance's flat has a Whistlerian mural in the entrance hall and is stuffed with antiques and Chinese vases, piquantly set off by modernist paintings by a follower of Braque. (Writers earned more in those days.) Helen Teckman's flat (from the sketches lying about she must a dress designer but this is oddly never mentioned) is full of Lucienne Day textiles and modernist sculptures that get mistaken for ashtrays. Michael Medwin is good as the missing pilot, though you wonder why he never got his teeth fixed. Margaret Leighton as Helen is extraordinary. She is still wearing 30s eyebrows. She makes her second appearance, just dropping by Chance's flat about dinnertime, dressed as if for a Buckingham Palace garden party in a hat and an extraordinary dress with a demi-crinoline that starts life about halfway down her thighs, set off with pearls and a fur wrap. And gloves and a charm bracelet. Yes, she is the height of glamour, but painfully, painfully thin. Her legs look like twiglets. She keeps getting asked out to dinner and lunch, and she even offers Chance tea with sandwiches, but does she ever eat anything? Jane Wenham is good as the pilot's wife. The view from all windows is of a skillful painting of a London skyline, but there are some location scenes - especially in the gripping denouement at the Tower. As well as smoking all the time, everybody drinks too much and this is thought to be terribly witty. A marvellous period piece.

robert-temple-1 This fifties British mystery film holds together and is very good. It was based on a mystery tale by Francis Durbridge which had been filmed as a six-part BBC television series only the year before, entitled THE TECKMAN BIOGRAPHY (1953-4), with a now forgotten cast, which has never been reviewed, and is presumably lost. The story, being here greatly compressed, thus has a great deal of meat to it and is never short on substance. The film was the first feature film directed by Wendy Toye (1917-2010), a multi-talented woman who was also an actress, choreographer, dance instructor, ballet dancer, writer, producer, and stage director. She did an excellent job of directing this film, which is a true British film noir. John Justin and Margaret Leighton are the leads and they do very well. Leighton is very good at ambiguity and impenetrable mystery. Roland Culver plays a dogged police inspector and Michael Medwin plays the elusive Martin Teckman, who turns out not to have died as a test pilot in the dramatic crash of an experimental plane after all, but turns up in the middle of the film very much alive but very much on the run. It is a good and intriguing espionage yarn.

mcannady1 I just wanted to say a few words about this gem of a film. I gladly watched the 90 minutes and enjoyed all of the suspense. I ordered this film as I like British Film Noir and I happened to notice Margaret Leighton's name topping the cast. I am also a John Justin and Raymond Huntley fan too! It is always nice to see Jane Wenhem who is little known. The photography is really done very nicely. Once I started watching I had to see what happened to the brother who was suspiciously murdered. From the first engaging moments through the rest of the film I really got caught up in the suspense! I think the entire film was wrapped up in a tidy way. At the end we find that things work out unexpectedly! But we still have enjoyed watching.