This is a 'quota quickie' which at least has brevity on its side: clocking in at under 62 minutes, it has enough pace to avoid boring the audience.
We are presented with the curious spectacle of John Horsley, later famous as Doc Morrissey in "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin", cast as a man of action, possibly the hero, possibly the criminal. He is given lines like "I'll be there or bust!" - and one can obviously only think of We have female parts barely sketched in by the screenwriter, Doreen Montgomery; Rona Anderson as the bland romantic lead Sallie and Mary Jones does a lot of sub-Celia Johnson lower-lip trembling as Florence Cole. Kenneth Kent treats it as if a pantomime and why not, frankly? Dialogue such as "Have a care my dear! Indiscriminate tippling can lead to alcoholism. So unattractive, especially in women" and "Put these effusions in the fire" really do beg to be delivered with a certain ripe pomposity and KK certainly delivers.
John Le Mesurier's puritan father is a nice decoy within the context of the film's Whodunnit nature; blundering into the courtroom declaiming "I am the father of the unhappy Madeline Tilliard!" as if he was in a Victorian theatrical melodrama. It is a shame we don't get to hear that much more from this character, speaking of "the devil's brew" and his sinful daughter, associated with "furtive meetings, whisperings in the dark and heedless laughter..." "A Time to Kill" is frankly routine, often humdrum fare, but still remains infinitely more watchable than many current Hollywood products of double, even triple, its length. We get to hear good old English phrases like "who is this preposterous man!?" "good hunting!" "rigmarole" "oh, what 'ave I said..." and "he's a fiend for fresh air, Mr 'Astings!" Which is all preferable to a punch on the nose, or an hour's daytime television.
We are presented with the curious spectacle of John Horsley, later famous as Doc Morrissey in "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin", cast as a man of action, possibly the hero, possibly the criminal. He is given lines like "I'll be there or bust!" - and one can obviously only think of We have female parts barely sketched in by the screenwriter, Doreen Montgomery; Rona Anderson as the bland romantic lead Sallie and Mary Jones does a lot of sub-Celia Johnson lower-lip trembling as Florence Cole. Kenneth Kent treats it as if a pantomime and why not, frankly? Dialogue such as "Have a care my dear! Indiscriminate tippling can lead to alcoholism. So unattractive, especially in women" and "Put these effusions in the fire" really do beg to be delivered with a certain ripe pomposity and KK certainly delivers.
John Le Mesurier's puritan father is a nice decoy within the context of the film's Whodunnit nature; blundering into the courtroom declaiming "I am the father of the unhappy Madeline Tilliard!" as if he was in a Victorian theatrical melodrama. It is a shame we don't get to hear that much more from this character, speaking of "the devil's brew" and his sinful daughter, associated with "furtive meetings, whisperings in the dark and heedless laughter..." "A Time to Kill" is frankly routine, often humdrum fare, but still remains infinitely more watchable than many current Hollywood products of double, even triple, its length. We get to hear good old English phrases like "who is this preposterous man!?" "good hunting!" "rigmarole" "oh, what 'ave I said..." and "he's a fiend for fresh air, Mr 'Astings!" Which is all preferable to a punch on the nose, or an hour's daytime television.