The defence The Big-Idea Head
“Form is the argument.”
Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.
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Midnight Lace
Mystery · Thriller · 1960
Kit Preston begins to unravel when she receives threatening telephone calls informing her she's soon to be murdered.
Movie details
Midnight Lace
“Even with the arms of her love around her...she still felt the menace of that voice in the night!”
1960 Mystery · Thriller 1h 48m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.6 / 10
Community rating
Kit Preston begins to unravel when she receives threatening telephone calls informing her she's soon to be murdered.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Midnight Lace?
For the defence
The Big-Idea Head
“You watch with your brain, not your gut.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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The List of Adrian Messenger
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Adrian Messenger, a famous writer, asks his friend Anthony Gethryn, a former British agent, to help him investigate the whereabouts of the people who appear on a list, without asking him the reason why he should do so.
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The 39 Steps
Mystery · 1935
Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.
Coma
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The Mirror Crack'd
Mystery · 1980
Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
The Medusa Touch
Horror · 1978
A French detective in London reconstructs the life of a man lying in hospital with severe injuries with the help of journals and a psychiatrist. He realises that the man had powerful telekinetic abilities.
Night Watch
Mystery · 1973
A woman recovering from a nervous breakdown tries to convince her husband and and the local London police that she has witnessed a murder in the abandoned house next door.
Gaslight
Thriller · 1944
A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.
Thirteen at Dinner
Crime · 1985
Actress Jane Wilkinson wants a divorce, but her husband, Lord Edgware, refuses. She convinces Hercule Poirot to use his famed tact and logic to make her case. Lord Edgware turns up murdered, a well-placed knife wound at the base of his neck. It will take the precise Poirot to sort out the lies from the alibis - and find the criminal before another victim dies.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
David Miller
Written by
Ivan Goff · Ben Roberts
Doris Day
Kit Preston
Rex Harrison
Anthony Preston
John Gavin
Brian Younger
Myrna Loy
Aunt Bea
Roddy McDowall
Malcolm
Herbert Marshall
Charles Manning
Natasha Parry
Peggy Thompson
Court is in session
Put Midnight Lace on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Technique in search of a pulse.”
Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.