Jigsaw (1962)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Solid, well-made police procedural, about the investigation into the murder of a young woman whose dismembered body is found in a suitcase. "Jigsaw" really is a procedural, meaning that it focuses on the procedures and methods used to discover culprits and bring them to justice. Many of these methods are mundane and boring beyond belief - but then, "they also serve who only stand and wait", even watching a certain house from behind a tactically located gardenia bush can help apprehend a criminal and save innocent lives... The movie's plot is logical, the clues and hints are handed out fairly and the solution is satisfying to the intellect. On the other hand the movie threatens to become somewhat dry : it would have benefitted from a bit more emotion or wit. Watching a movie like this always reminds me of the strange fact that there really, truly are human beings who can say sensible things about the height of a random stranger they saw crossing the street three weeks before. Quite often these are also the same people capable of pinpointing exact dates : "Yes, yes, I saw a blonde lady in a tan coat with a toddler on her arm, this was on January 12th, at eight o'clock". It impresses the hell out of me, since I work on entirely different principles : when it comes to the small details of everyday life, nature has given me a colander instead of a memory. Aaah, well, that's human difference for you...

This film starring Jack Warner as a police Deputy Inspector was made during Warner's peak of fame. For 21 years, from 1955 to 1976, Warner played the policeman George Dixon in DIXON OF DOCK GREEN, in a total of an astonishing 432 episodes. This film was therefore guaranteed a good reception by the British public because Warner as a policeman had become a national institution by this time. The film was extremely well directed by Val Guest, who will probably always be best remembered for his superior science fiction films THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (sic; also starring Jack Warner, 1955) and THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE (1959). The female lead in the film is the American actress Yolande Donlan, Val Guest's wife. He had already directed her in ESPRESSO BONGO in 1959, the film he made before this one. Donlan is very good in the part. Val and Yolande were a very pleasant couple. I visited them at their home in St. John's Wood in London and they were charming and excellent conversationalists. That was long ago, when Yolande was in her forties and very much still a vibrantly attractive woman with a lively personality. I do not know why she did not appear in more films and chose to retire in 1981. She only died a few months ago at the age of 94. This film is based on a novel by the American mystery writer Hillary Waugh, who was no relation to Evelyn Waugh. There are many Waughs in Britain related to Evelyn, and I suppose one could call them the long-tailed Waughs, in which case Hillary Waugh might be styled a short-tailed Waugh, in order to differentiate him from the British variants of his species. They all come from Ireland anyway, and in the mists of time they must all have been one big Oneness, sitting by their peat fires dug from the same bog. The story is a good one, and the title refers to the fact that the police are trying to fit together the pieces of an exasperating jigsaw in order to solve a woman's murder. There are so few clues that the story of detection is fascinating. The film is set in Brighton, and there is a great deal of location shooting there and in Lewes, which show the towns as they were back then, nearly deserted and entirely lacking the sleaze of modern commercialism and identikit chain stores. Living conditions in Britain in 1961 were so basic, and that comes across well. John Le Mesurier has a minor role in this film, and has to do a lot of emoting and crying, for which he was by means noted in his later career as a droll and comic figure. One simply is not used to seeing Le Mesurier sobbing like that, so it makes a change. Le Mesurier commenced his film acting career as long ago as 1938 so he was very much a veteran of the screen already by this early date, six years before he became a national institution as one of the stars of the popular TV series DAD'S ARMY. Le Mesurier had however already made a name for himself in comedy by appearing with Tony Hancock in various episodes of HANCOCK'S HALF HOUR (1957-1960), which are now considered prize classics of their genre. Supporting Jack Warner as the other main policeman is that stalwart of TV and screen, Ronald Lewis. It is sobering to think that he was 41 years younger than Yolande Donlan when he died. This film is certainly a very good yarn, and highly entertaining.

It's Brighton in the early 60s. A lonely house. A tarty blond gets out of bed and informs her boyfriend that she's pregnant so they'll have to be married. This is a big mistake on her part. The boyfriend evidently doesn't want to build a home because he kills her, chops her up, and stashes her in a trunk in the garage -- most of her, anyway.We never do see the killer and thereby hangs a tail. The renter of the house, Brian Oulton, is all upset because the occupants are behind in their payments so the police are called in. They are Jack Warner and Ronald Lewis. At first, knowing only that the "Campbells" skipped on the rent, they poke around the house in a leisurely fashion, examining the furniture, the furnace, and so on, all quite disinterestedly, despite being nettled by Oulton, the impatient owner. Once the body is uncovered, the police shift into high gear and the film turns into a nifty policier.The director, Val Guest, also wrote the screenplay. He doesn't waste a moment. There is occasional overlapping dialog, some brisk but friendly banter, orders are casually snapped out and followed at once. The police have no names, neither the victim nor the presumed killer, and begin visiting neighbors and shops, trying to piece together enough independent data to complete a picture of what happened. I presume that's where the title, "Jigsaw", comes from, and not from the fact that the girl's body was so gruesomely mishandled.The story itself is too complicated to describe in any detail. Most of these detective stories are. There are many red herrings before the final capture, but the movie ends on a cute note. The killer's alibi rests on an excuse that it was an accident. The poor girl tripped and bashed her head in. In a panic, the killer ran out and bought the instruments that sawed her up. But that was after she was already dead, a Monday night. The alibi is disproved in the last shot when Warner points to a poster advertising a musical performance featuring Beethoven's Piano Concerto, Schubert's Fourth Symphony, and something by Malcolm Arnold. The performance was on Monday night -- Easter -- so all the hardware shops were closed. He must have bought the instruments earlier, so the murder was deliberate. The gag is Malcolm Arnold's name. He scored every British movie ever made between 1900 and 2014, and all his scores were conducted and recorded by Muir Matheson.It's a little long but thoroughly enjoyable for what it is.

Despite the presence of Jack Warner as a senior policeman, the world of "Jigsaw" is a far cry from the cosy atmosphere of "Dixon of Dock Green". Effective camerawork makes Brighton a faintly sinister setting for this murder mystery. The standard of acting is generally high, (although I found Yolande Donlan's performance a little overwrought for my taste) and a strong script from Guest ensures that the detailed police investigation contains enough action (and unexpected revelations) to hold the viewer's interest to the very end.