The Squeaker

Clumsy casting and sloppy direction from the once-promising alcoholic Howard drain the vitality from Edgar Wallace's story of the unmasking of a master criminal who holds the underworld in thrall and uses Scotland Yard for his own advantage. Vincent Korda's elegant sets and Georges Périnal's subtle, inventive lighting are memorable, but the attempt to substitute atmosphere for suspense fails, despite a flamboyantly melodramatic climax. Fading American star Lowe seems out of his element in English crime, and Tamara Desni struggles in vain to bring exoticism to the British cinema. Fortunately there is compensation in young Alastair Sim, and in Robert Newton's passionate jewel thief, desperately trying to 'give up crime and live like a human being'.