Early directorial effort from Douglas Sirk offers an offbeat role for Lucille Ball, ably playing an American dancer in London who is enlisted by Scotland Yard to catch a poem-writing serial killer who preys on showgirls. Leo Rosten's screenplay (culled from perhaps various treatments by Jacques Companéez, Simon Gantillon, and Ernest Neuville) is loosely-hinged at best, thin at worst. A sequence with Boris Karloff as a delusional designer goes on far too long, as does a tiresome thread with Ball working as a maid for a possible pervert. Entertaining on a minor level, especially for Lucy-addicts (her dryly comic exasperation is very funny, as is her rapport with the inspectors on the case). George Sanders is ideally cast as a wealthy nightclub owner who takes a shine to our heroine--and who wouldn't? Ball may be photographed in black-and-white, but she exudes both sophisticated glamor and attractive street-smarts. She's a peach. **1/2 from ****

The show closed after four days in London. Stranded Lucille Ball is working as a taxi dancer, hoping something will turn up. She's envious when the girl next to her tells her it's her last day; her tall, dark and handsome man is taking her away from all of this. The next day the newspapers announce it: she's the latest victim claimed by the Poet Killer, a serial killer who likes to send the police Baudelaire-inspired notes. Miss Ball goes to talk to Inspector Charles Coburn, who promptly hires her as bait.

Hunt Stromberg pulled out all the stops on his production: director Dirk Sirk, cameraman William Daniels, script credited to Leo Rosten, and a cast that includes George Sanders, Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Alan Mowbray, Robert Coote... well, it was primed for success.

Mostly it's pretty good, with Miss Ball giving a varied and layered performance, and Sanders at his most charming. There are some issues with the show. As soon as he showed up on screen, I tagged the murderer. Miss Ball's engagement by the police as a decoy has too many details handwaved away, and she never gives the impression she feels herself at risk. That's what spike heels are for.

Still, the studio-bound movie shows its glitter on the screen, and in a theater in the dark, it should look like a fine couple of hours.

What's the matter with this film's casting--was Hollywood running out of genuine English actors? I can't understand with all the English actors in the film and the film being set in London, you'd sure think that all the actors would be Brits--or at least sound British. So why did they cast Charles Coburn (a great actor, sure) and Lucille Ball in this film? As a result, when the film started I felt puzzled to say the least but at least noticed that there were a lot of actors in the film other than these two leads who actually were Brits.

The film concerns a serial killer who is killing pretty young ladies. Oddly, he has a calling card of sorts, as he leaves strange and rather cryptic poems for the police. When Lucille Ball is able to give the police some important information concerning her friend who just disappeared, the police instantly make her a police woman and send her out on assignments to find the killer. It seems that whoever is doing the killings is using personal ads in the newspaper to recruit victims, so they have Lucy go in response to many, many such ads.

Here's the odd part--and I don't blame the film makers for this but the marketing jerks at Kino Video today. You see, on the cover of the DVD, there is a nice photo of Lucy and Boris Karloff and it's very prominent. However, Karloff is only in the movie about five minutes and he's eliminated as a suspect early on in the film--yet the DVD maker would have the viewer expect this to be a film in which Karloff starred. Heck, a dozen people were in the movie would could have easily been put on the cover with Lucy instead! Despite all this, Karloff is NOT the psycho (or at least he's a DIFFERENT psycho). So, Lucy goes on several more meetings until she is able to crack a smuggling ring--but not the serial killer. Along the way, she meets and almost instantly falls in love with George Sanders and they decide to marry(!). But, when it appears that Sanders may actually be the killer, Lucy may be in for far more than she thought.

The film has an interesting plot and could have been a very good film...but it was not. There were several problems with the film. First, the casting was just all wrong. Second, what police force in the world would take an untrained civilian and make her an instant police woman? Additionally, why would they hand her a loaded gun--especially when the British police rarely carry revolvers! Third, the relationship with Sanders and Lucy just went way, way too fast. No offense, but he's rather erudite and rich--so why would he go all ga-ga over Lucy? Back in the 1930s, she was rather pretty but still so unlike Sanders. Now, in 1947, the match just made little sense--perhaps he was on the rebound from Zsa-Zsa. Sadly, so much about the writing was good--such as the nice plot twists in the latter half of the film. But it's just too sloppy and improbable throughout to be more than a time-passer.

Sad, as there was a cast of wonderful actors that were unfortunately wasted. Other than the folks I already mentioned, the film starred Cedric Hardwicke, George Zucco, Joseph Calleia, Joseph Calleia and Alan Napier--all very, very talented men.