Another reviewer states that this film has only been shown once on television in UK - I disagree with this as my archives hold a DVD copy of a VHS tape made of a broadcast on 01/09/2002 by C5, and I am confident in stating that this film was also broadcast on 02 or 03/10/1998 also by C5.Most of the characters in this film conform to stereotypes, and the dilemma is deciding which gender comes off worse: we see pretty Jean (Ingrid Hafner), who plans to leave doting husband Harry (Peter Halliday) on their wedding anniversary and flee the country with the proceeds of her heroin trafficking; Harry's harridan mother (Joan Heath); the omnipresent nosy next-door-neighbour Edna Jones (Patricia Burke); the inconvenient local church restoration fund collector (Barbara Lott) and her spooky acolyte; and, best of all, the casualty sister who tears Jean's Elastoplast off with barely concealed glee.The men don't fare any better: there's Harry himself, who decides that the best course of action when finding a corpse in his bathroom is to pull up the living room floorboards to create an impromptu grave; a comedy lower middle manager husband of aforementioned nosy neighbour; a comedy dodgy builders' merchant complete with dodgy dozy Steven Berkoff lookalike sidekick; a blind piano tuner (Arthur Hewlett); a young piano student who seems to be mute (but is probably only voiceless here to save actor's fees) and, finally, Patrick Jordan as a plain clothes detective suffering from virtual brain death.All comes right in the end though, with sexy Jean probably going to the gallows for murder - all's well that ends well - Result! 10/10 MJB

This is a rather better than average B feature, set in a modest respectable middle-class '30s-'50s suburb of houses with tidy front gardens, net curtain and a nosy neighbour.A bored middle-aged housewife notices some odd occurrences at her neighbours house - a scream, the sudden departure of the wife, the return of the husband, his curious activities throughout the day - carrying bags of cement indoors, carrying a large tin bath also indoors. All very suspicious. She consults her husband who knows her habits and reassuringly dismisses her concerns.So far precisely an episode of One Foot in the Grave - the type of neighbourhood, bizarre happenings with very dark interpretations.Only the dark events are not imagined but completely real - as the audience to this crime-mystery know in the first few minutes. The happenings are completely beyond the imaginings of the suspicious neighbour.I didn't guess the final revelation. Although it is fairly engrossing, a better production would have ramped up the tension and made the wife's manner less even as the conclusion approached.My lasting impression is that One Foot in the Grave, now an established comedy classic was a genius comic twist on this fairly ordinary original. Or perhaps I am just imagining it?

"Dilemma" is a beaut little crime gem penned by Pip and Jane Baker who went on to write scripts for "Dr. Who". Surprisingly it had only a limited initial release (and I do mean limited) in Yorkshire and has only been shown once on English TV - it really deserves to be better known. The sparse showings may have had something to do with the fact that none of the players went on to anything of importance, although Ingrid Hafner was in the original series of "The Avengers" but left the show when offered the role in "Dilemma" (silly girl, it was a pretty thankless role with her only appearing at the beginning and at the end) and Peter Halliday whose face is familiar through countless TV shows.Hitting you initially with an upbeat jazz score, this nifty but bizarre little thriller has loving husband coming home after work only to discover a man's body in the bathroom and his wife missing. (She has already been seen fleeing from the house in disarray over the credits). He is a teacher, just starting on holidays ("you lucky teachers with all your holidays" says busy body neighbour Mrs. Jones whose peering into windows and popping around with cups of tea give the movie some of it's thrills)!! Everything points to Jean (Hafner) being the murderess as he finds a bloodied apron and a broken glass in the laundry basket, so of course he does the sensible thing - no, not call the police!! but dispose of the body under some loose floorboards in the living room.In the middle of all this his mother comes around and their heart to heart proves there may be a few chinks in Harry's "idyllic" marriage. His mother has never approved of Jean and what's more she doesn't approve of Harry much either citing that at 32 his father was already a headmaster while Harry is content to just plod along with no ambition.You think you know where this movie is headed but you don't - things come to a head when Harry pops into the local hardware centre to buy cement and soon after the police visit the same centre asking questions about an abandoned car and it's criminal owner, whether he had popped into the shop - it seems the shop owner hasn't always been on the up and up!!! Meanwhile Jean has been to the hospital to see about her cut hand and is now in a tizz down at the bank - she can't find her security box key (she dropped it in the garden when she fled) and she is desperate to get the box open!! The police's questions about "suspicious acting people" bring them to Harry's door and the ending is packed with accusations with the police initially loth to reveal why they are interested in this man but now revealing he is a known drug dealer who sets up housewives in well to do suburbs to act as carriers!!Bryanston Studios had a small but prestigious distribution run starting with "The Battle of the Sexes" and "The Entertainer" and ending with "The System" with Oliver Reed. It was formed by Michael Balcon from the ashes of the defunct Ealing Studios.Highly Recommended.

This film isn't really a thriller, but it is successful in being a suspense filled drama. This film is actually quite a gem. The plot and entire pretext for the film are simple but takes a twist at the end which I don't think anybody could predict. The final explanation for the dead body in the end is not complex, but it is extremely clever and not cliched like 99.9% of big Hollywood blockbusters. It was actually a very refreshing modern ending, which I was not expecting considering the film was made in the early 1960s, this helps push the film above simply being a low-budget British affair.The whole thing is shot in a believable and completely intruiging way, yes this film is simple, but that is what makes it so brilliant. It works because it is believable -he is an ordinary man, who lives in an ordinary house, not some mansion in Beverly Hills. The film is fuelled by suspense over what the schoolmaster is going to do with the body, all the more so because his nosey neighbour cannot stop interferring.I found this film very similar to "The Nanny" starring Bette Davis, they are very similar in that they simply tell a story, without enormous complications and huge Hollywood overcomplicating budgets getting in the way. Some people will probably not enjoy it for it's simplicity, because they are so used to big budget blockbusters, but if your willing to give this film a try you will find it is actually extremely enjoyable. If it was available on VHS I would probably buy it. 10 out of 10.