See How They Run (2022)

Summary: There is a cast party for the actors and hangers on after 100th performance of The Mousetrap, at which a American director who aspires to directing the film version is killed. The investigation is assigned to Inspector Stoppard who is unwillingly given the assistance of Constable Stalker, a voluble Irish policewoman. Their progress is monitored by the Met Commissioner. Stalker and Stoppard go to the play, during which various people in the frame for the murder leave the auditorium and one, the writer who is to script the screen version is killed by strangulation. Stalker mistakenly thinks the culprit is Inspector Stoppard, since she knows that his ex-wife has had another man’s child and it seems that her name is in the film director’s black book. Is he guilty, and if not who done it?

Content: No sex or nudity but a lot of drinking. In fact Stoppard is a drunk who pops into a pub all the time to liven up. But no smoking at all. Quite extensive narration by the film director in the first ten minutes before he is killed. The cast party takes place where we are introduced to the characters. A lot of smart talk between Stalker and Stoppard once they are investigating. A number of scenes on the stage of the theatre. The detectives drive about in Stoppard’s Ford Prefect? On one occasion Stalker drives the Inspector home because he is pissed.  There are meeting with the Commissioner at various times. The climax takes place when the whole cast are assembled in the home of Agatha Christie.

A View: There are a lot of jokes in this film. Saoirse Ronan is charmingly Irish. The Inspector is both competent as a detective, but unreliable because he is a drunk. In the background there is the knowledge we have that the Mousetrap is still running, and there have indeed been no official film versions. So far so good but the comedy depends a bit on an authentic presentation of theatre land in the 1950s, the Inspector seemed to be driving  a slightly odd Ford Prefect, unlikely I thought, no-one smoked and, honestly, in 1950s UK black people would be more likely to be operating the railways, than circulating in theatre land. But despite its faults it is the most fun film we have seen in the cinema for sometime.

Many years ago there loads of British comedies in cinemas, but not so much now. However there are a few about worth watching reviewed on this site including Dad’s Army, the Full Monty and Johnny English.