This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Witnessing an apparent murder while taking a train to work, bridge builder Michael Redgrave gets involved and finds more than he bargained for with Sally Gray, the apparent victim. It's a strange setup, starting with Redgrave's wife (Patricia Roc) walking out on her job and ignoring important instructions, heading home for time with her husband. The focus then switches to Redgrave, getting a police officer to break in on the apparent murder, only to find that there wasn't one it's egocentric magician Paul Lukas and his own wife (Gray) allegedly rehearsing, but as we soon see, Lukas is jealous, domineering and even a bit maniacal. Redgrave's intrusion into their lives increases and he manages to sneak Gray out of the theater during a performance. Meanwhile, Roc is fired from her job and becomes concerned when her husband does not come home.This is bizarre, not only in structure, but in its general storytelling. There seems to be no real point in the twists and turns, and after a while I began to realize that there was no real reason for the many directions this seems to be going in. What works here are all the little details. The film opens with a shot of the Thames and the many bridges that cross, plus there's also extended location sequences of regular people going about their day. Even a rehearsal between Lukas and Gray goes into detail with his egotistical explosions and proper choreography of how the act is supposed to work. If I learned anything from this, it's to try to stay out of people's business as much as possible. You never realize the messes that can add onto your own. Be warned: the ending is a real downer!

This starts off as a "love on the dole" flick, though these two newlyweds (Michael Redgrave and Patricia Roc) are employed. Redgrave works the day shift as a crane operator on the Waterloo Bridge project and Roc works the graveyard shift as a hotel telephone operator. Due to their schedules they don't have much time to see each other. Then it turns into a suspense movie when Redgrave sees what appears to be a murder while he is riding on the train to work.After some investigation, it turns out he saw Lukas, as the magician Zoltini, practicing a knife trick with his wife, the very lovely Sally Gray. Lukas is the very jealous type, so he thinks that Redgrave is flirting with Gray, which he is, though in a minor way. Gray is tired of hubby's jealously, so she leaves him and finds Redgrave. They engage in a little smooching, but that's about it. Redgrave returns to his wife and Gray returns to her husband and it looks as if things will work out for both couples.Then Lukas finds some money and a airplane ticket in Gray's purse, both of which are gifts from their manager. As expected, the old boy blows his top and shoots Gray dead. All of this occurs just as Redgrave and Roc are riding in the train and go past the window of the other couple. Now, isn't life strange.Sally Gray is a very lovely lass, and one wonders why she is married to Lukas, who is old enough to be her father. It's workmanlike film, and I wonder what Hitch could have done with the same material. He surely would have improved it and given it more life. Still, it is worth watching anyways.

Michael Redgrave is on the train to his job as a crane operator. He sees at a window Paul Lukas killing Sally Gray.It's a great start for a movie, and it was used before. LADY IN DISTRESS is a remake of the French METROPOLITAIN. I'd like to offer you a comparison of the two movies, but I've never seen the earlier film. I do know that Michael Redgrave is miscast as a working stiff who rides around in taxicabs. Sally Gray, on the other hand, impresses me as more than eye candy with a sullen expression for the first time. She's very good as the unwilling femme fatale who drives her husband, stage magician Lukas, crazy with jealousy, talent manager Hartley Power, sad with hopelessness and Redgrave mad with the possibilities of a magical night.There are many early noir elements in this movie, filled, as it is, with Gallic fatalism, and can be viewed as an important step in its evolution. It's just not a film noir in itself.

From a train window, crane-driver Michael Redgrave thinks he sees a woman being strangled. What follows is an unusual and effective story involving a magician, his assistant wife and a subtle interplay of illusion and murder. Refreshingly directed by the overlooked Herbert Mason, and well performed throughout (particularly Redgrave and Sally Gray), this small gem benefits greatly from its varied and credible London backgrounds, including music halls (including magic shows), mundane work places not normally seen in British films of the period, and construction work on Waterloo Bridge, under which the National Film Theatre is situated (which is where I last saw this film).