Jigsaw (1962 film)
Jigsaw is a 1962 British crime drama film written and directed by Val Guest, and starring Jack Warner and Ronald Lewis. It is based on the police procedural novel Sleep Long, My Love by Hillary Waugh,[1] with the setting changed from the fictional small town of Stockford, Connecticut,[n 1] to Brighton, Sussex, while retaining the names and basic natures of its two police protagonists and most of the other characters. It was filmed with the full cooperation of the County Borough of Brighton Police, which was under the shadow of a major corruption scandal, and the East Sussex Constabulary.[n 2]
| Jigsaw | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Val Guest |
| Produced by | Val Guest |
| Screenplay by | Val Guest |
| Based on | a novel by Hillary Waugh |
| Starring | Jack Warner Ronald Lewis Yolande Donlan Michael Goodliffe John Le Mesurier |
| Cinematography | Arthur Grant |
| Edited by | Bill Lenny |
| Distributed by | Brittania Films (UK) Beverly Pictures (USA) |
Release date | 21 August 1962 |
Running time | 107 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Plot
A woman is found partially dismembered in Saltdean, near Brighton. Two local detectives, following up a simple burglary of an estate agent's office, discover the body and take on the investigation of the death. The dead woman is unidentified and the suspect for what is presumed to be a murder is an unknown man who has used a false identity to rent the house in which the woman was found. The detectives methodically develop and follow up leads to identify both people, mostly in Brighton, but also further afield in Lewes and Greenwich.
One lead appears to identify the dead woman, but their follow-up reveals that the name is that of a woman who was at the house but is still living. They track down and arrest a suspect described by several persons as the man who occupied the house, but the case takes an unexpected turn when he admits that he was there but denies any involvement.
After the dead woman is positively identified the veteran inspector leading the case develops a "wild idea" about the identity of another suspect, then orders a standard procedure that confirms his theory in a non-standard fashion. This suspect admits knowledge of the death but his contention that it was accidental appears to be unshakeable until the detectives realise that he has tripped himself up in a crucial detail.[2]
Cast
- Jack Warner as Detective Inspector Fred Fellows
- Ronald Lewis as Detective Sergeant Jim Wilks
- Yolande Donlan as Jean Sherman
- Michael Goodliffe as Clyde Burchard
- John Le Mesurier as Mr Simpson
- Moira Redmond as Joan Simpson
- Christine Bocca as Mrs Simpson
- Brian Oulton as Frank Restlin
- Ray Barrett as Sergeant Gorman
- Norman Chappell as Andy Roach
- John Barron as Ray Tenby
- Joan Newell as Mrs Banks
Critical response
Britmovie wrote that Jigsaw is "a chilling murder mystery," adding that, "at 107 minutes, the film is long but never tiresome";[3] while The Guardian described the film as "one of the finest postwar British crime movies and possibly the best depiction of the seaside town on film. Caught in its seedy corruption, Brighton emerges as a far cry from the bumbling world with which (Val) Guest had until then been associated."
The Duke of Edinburgh reportedly dismissed the film as "bloody boring". [4]
Notes
- Footnotes
- The fictional Stockford is also located in a fictional part of Connecticut, 12 miles north of Stamford, a location actually in New York state.
- The Brighton Borough Police and the East Sussex Constabulary were both merged into the new Sussex Constabulary under the Police Act 1964.
- References
- "Jigsaw". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
- "Jigsaw (1962) - Overview". TCM.com. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
- "Jigsaw 1962 | Britmovie | Home of British Films". Britmovie. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
- Christopher Hawtree. "Obituary: Val Guest". the Guardian.
The film was shot in CinemaScope, but this is uncredited.