Crown v. Stevens

A short British crime film. Doris is a former dancer. She married a man she took for rich; he is not rich, and she has debts of her own. She goes one night to see the man she owes. The night ends badly. The same evening a young man who works for her husband comes to the scene and sees her leaving it. From there the film is about an attempted partnership in crime: the woman tries to bring the young man over to her side, and her proposals go steadily further. When an insurance policy enters the conversation her intention is plain. The narrative is short, quick and unornamented. The whole matter is the woman's next move. It is a quota film. In the 1930s a set proportion of the films shown in Britain had to be made there; American studios met the requirement cheaply by having quick pictures made at small studios near London. This is one of them. Beatrix Thomson plays Doris; her film career was very short and this is the only picture she carried as lead. Michael Powell directed. He would become one of the most original figures in British cinema; here he is still making low-budget work against the clock. Who it is for: anyone curious about early Powell and the British quota pictures. Who it is not for: anyone looking for depth; the film runs under seventy minutes and never enters its characters' pasts.