A chorus girl blackmails her way into high society—where everyone's hiding something sharper than their tea knives.
When a music-hall dancer is murdered, a moss rose marks the page of a Bible next to her body. Luckily, another chorus girl saw a gentleman leaving the lodgings. She approaches him directly, saying she'll go to the police if he doesn't meet her demands, but he brushes her off contemptuously. When he learns she's dead serious, he tries to buy her off with a thick wad of pound notes. But it's not money she's after; all she wants is two weeks at his country estate, living the life of a lady.
Acting
Ethel Barrymore steals every scene without standing up.
Production
Gothic manor practically breathes on its own.
Costume
Belle's transformation from tart to lady is *chef's kiss*.
Director
Gregory Ratoff
Peggy Cummins
Belle Adair aka Rose Lynton
Victor Mature
Michael Drego
Ethel Barrymore
Lady Margaret Drego
Vincent Price
Police Inspector Clinner
Margo Woode
Daisy Arrow
George Zucco
Craxton
Patricia Medina
Audrey Ashton
Rhys Williams
Deputy Inspector Evans
Harry Allen
Threadbare Little Man (uncredited)
Frank Baker
Lodger (uncredited)
Billy Bevan
Harry, Cab Driver (uncredited)
Clifford Brooke
Chemist (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Joseph Shearing's novel, itself inspired by the real 1860 Road Hill House murder that fascinated Victorian England.
Peggy Cummins was loaned out for this after her notorious gun-crazy performance in 'Gun Crazy'—Hollywood couldn't decide if she was innocent or deadly, so they made her both.
US
