A rich but disliked elderly man invites his relatives to a family reunion at his home. Once the gathering is complete, he announces enigmatically that he intends to change his will before he dies. Before he can do this, he is murdered. His niece (Gynt), a detective story writer, has to put her theories into practice by solving a real-life murder mystery.
UK
UK
A British whodunnit, lost and sought for decades before being rediscovered in an Australian archive and restored. A group of cousins gather at the home of their rich uncle, well aware that he can't stand the sight of the lot of them. I wonder who's going to get bumped off?
It's reasonably enough assembled by director Daniel Birt but it's a pretty tepid affair that rattles through its plot in less than an hour. One development in the last quarter raised my eyebrows but it's not remarked on again which made me wonder if I'd misunderstood something. It also concludes with a sudden, unsatisfactory thud. I quite like Greta Gynt though, probably because her screen name is so obviously meant to say 'like Garbo except Norwegian'. Time-passing but by no means essential.
This rather short film (just under an hour) was on the BFI's most wanted list for several years before being recovered from the National Film and Sound Archive in Australia and restored.
It's a very basic British B picture, a whodunit. Director Daniel Birt only made twelve films, of which this was the seventh; most were in the crime or thriller genre.
Topped billed are Greta Gynt and Hugh Sinclair - he was perhaps the least successful actor to take part in the 'Saint' sequence of films, she was a Norwegian starlet signed by Rank to be an exotic addition to their stable of homegrown talent.
Basic tropes are here, a creepy house, a family reunion, a will, a murder and a detective story writer (Gynt). This 1950s mystery is workmanlike but very watchable, even if the murderer is easy to guess.
A cheap to make whodunnit that, for the most part, doesn’t look cheaply made (except for the occasional sight of the cast breathing) . Three Steps is a perfunctory affair that gently cranks up the pace to a breakneck crescendo that leaves you a little open mouthed as ‘The End” appears on the screen.
For the most part, the movie sticks to tradition with Arnold Burgoyne (Nicholas Hannen) sending invitations, in a very efficient and silent opening montage, to a gathering of his nieces, nephews and solicitor to announce the changing of his will. Originally he was to leave all his property and riches to Mrs. Riddle (Katie Johnson, most famous for The Ladykillers a few years later). In an…
Three Steps in the Dark was thought lost for many years, and unfortunately that remains the most mysterious thing about this British whodunnit - or rather, thatonedunnit, from very early on. Its characters are curiously unruffled by a murder in their midst, and in fact show barely any emotion throughout. The script seems interested only in the puzzle element, not in the people caught up in it, and consequently we don't care much about either.
