Jigsaw (1962)

Directed and produced by Val Guest

The inexplicable robbery of some leases from a realtor’s office leads detectives (Jack Warner, Ronald Lewis) to a seaside house where the partially dismembered body of a woman is found. From then on, the mystery deepens with too many clues, not enough suspects and the inspector in charge annoyed that he missed an important football match.

What for the first ten minutes seems to be the beginnings of a film noir becomes instead a police procedural. The switch was fortunate, I think, as the initial sequence appeared rather too self-consciously ‘noirish’, whereas the procedural is involving and entertaining, well-written with an eye for detail and accuracy. This is not surprising as it comes from a novel by mystery-writer Hillary Waugh, who specialised in such stories.

Jigsaw is transplanted from the Connecticut of the book to Brighton, on the Sussex coast. The decision to set the movie in the seaside town was a good one, probably prompted by the desire to replicate in the movie the small city feel of the book. Once in Brighton, the hotels and resorts of the tourist are eschewed for the work-a-day shops and flats of the permanent residents. This gives the environment a rather worn, lived-in look.

The script is brisk, detectives coming and going all the time, being given orders by superiors, despatched to neighbouring towns, calling in to report, popping in to offices with their latest findings. This creates not necessarily a sense of urgency - since there is no intrinsic deadline to the investigation - but a feeling of action, even in what could, in the hands of, say, Agatha Christie, have been an armchair mystery. The banter among the coppers has the authenticity derived from a good author.

This is partly due to the direction, which, after the slightly heavy hand of the first ten minutes, serves the movie well. Some interest is created by converting what might have been monotonous dialogue into other forms. For instance, the dead end of one clue is described by teletypes messages, alternately showing questions and answers, respectively, from the Brighton and Manchester Police forces. Tension is created in another scene when every change of camera-angle is expected by the viewer to reveal a body, but that is withheld for later. Also of advantage are, as mentioned, the differences given the setting by scenes shot in small streets of oft cinematically neglected towns.

The cast is very good, for the most part. Warner, as the detective inspector, was 67 at the time of Jigsaw’s release and, though he mentions retirement in the film, was in only the seventh year of his twenty-one year run as the title character in tv’s Dixon of Dock Green. Though a most capable actor, he doesn’t need to exert himself much to give a fine performance here. Ronald Lewis plays a sergeant, the inspector’s nephew. While this relationship is not necessary, it adds familiarity to the pair. It’s fun to hear them switch from the formal to the informal means of address, depending on who else is in the room.

The supporting cast is almost all commendable, whether playing suspects, victims, witnesses or police officers. The exception is Yolande Donlan, who portrays a girl involved in the crime. Her acting is not up even to the standard of the bit players, and her English accent is marginal; she was an American. It may be no surprise to learn that she was married to the director. More surprising is that Laurence Olivier brought her over to Britain specifically for one of his plays. Perhaps she translated better on the stage than the screen.

All in all, Jigsaw is a neat little police procedural combined with a whodunnit, with a satisfying conclusion.