| A Lady Mislaid | |
| Director: | David MacDonald |
| Producer: | Robert Hall |
| Starring: | Phyllis Calvert Alan White Thorley Walters Gillian Owen |
| Music: | Sydney John Kay |
| Cinematography: | Norman Warwick |
| Editing: | Seymour Logie |
| Studio: | Welwyn Studios |
| Distributor: | Associated British-Pathé (UK) |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
A Lady Mislaid is a 1958 British comedy film directed by David MacDonald and starring Phyllis Calvert, Alan White and Thorley Walters.[1] [2] It was written by Frederick Gotfurt based on the 1948 play of the same name by Kenneth Horne.[3]
Esther and her sister Jennifer are spinsters. Esther has bought a remote country cottage, and has invited her novelist sister to stay for recuperation. Esther hasn't told Jennifer that a policeman had called, earlier, had explained that the police wanted to search the house and gardens for the body of the former owner's wife, and that she'd agreed. When a human skeleton is unearthed in the chicken coop, the finger of suspicion points firmly at the previous occupant, Mr. Smith; till it is discovered to be an ancient Briton.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "An attempt at a short comédie noire, thls film needs a more ruthless and macabre line in humour to exploit a promising situation. Conventional characters and a flagging plot produce, instead of the witty melodrama that might have emerged, a tame piece of make-believe."[4]
The Radio Times gave the film two out of five stars, writing: "A quaint idea and a decent cast make perfectly respectable entertainment out of an hour-long British programmer, but there's not much more to be said for it."[5]