Kill or Cure (1962) Directed by George Pollock

(Review originally written at 31 May 2007)

This is a rather enjoyable little early British comedy. Amazing to see how actually little British comedy changed over the decades. This movie is in the same trend as for instance the Pink Panther movies (although obviously less brilliant) and gives a fun take on the murder-mystery genre. A genre director George Pollock knew really well since he directed many Agatha Christie novel movies, including the four earliest Miss Jane Marple movies, starring Margaret Rutherford.

The movie is nothing too fancy and its kept very simple, with its story and characters. It's also obviously fairly low-budget all. But lets face it, the murder-mystery movies from the '60's themselves also weren't that much special in terms of originality and re-playability. In that regard this movie is a fitting one, that takes on all the typical genre clichés, without ever really becoming original on itself, though the movie does a good job at keeping it a secret who the killer is, right till the end.

The setting of the movie is a comical fun one; a health clinic but its potential isn't used to the max in this movie. There are too few references reminding us of the fact that this movie is set in a health clinic. I mean were are the mud-baths, the face-masks, cold-water baths, disgusting food, etcetera. I remember a "Dalziel and Pascoe" episode that used this in a far more effective comical way and "Dalziel and Pascoe" isn't even a comedy-series but a serious' English detective-series. So I felt that it was a bit of a missed opportunity, to make the movie effectively more fun and comical-like.

The actors aren't much special but they known how to handle the comedy-genre well. It also provides the movie with some fun comical characters, without overly trying to be funny. Such as Det. Insp. Hook (Lionel Jeffries) but also the main character played by Terry-Thomas is a good and fun one, that knows to carry the movie effectively.

A good fun movie. I mean, there basically is no way you wont enjoy watching this movie.

6/10