Miss Tulip Stayed the Night
                                                                                                                  
Director: Leslie Arliss
Year: 1955
Rating: 5.5
Aka - Dead by Morning


An enjoyable British mystery comedy that only runs a bit over an hour. Clearly meant as a second feature. It is mainly worthwhile if one is a Diana Dors fan. Not sure how many of those there are now but back in the 1950s she was quite the dish and was called the English Marilyn Monroe. I have seen her in a few of her early films in which she had small roles and didn't have the blonde hair - cute but not smashing - but once the hair went blond she became a pin-up girl. Her success in films was up and down but she never really made it past B films and never made the jump to America. She is rather lovely here. She keeps the sex appeal hidden and just relies on charm and a constant smile. The low key very British comedy very much outweighs the mystery in this and the solution comes out of right field. There is no way the viewer can possibly guess it.


 
Dors picks up her husband (Patrick Holt) at the airport and takes him to a small country cottage for him to work on his next book. He is a mystery writer. One who always makes the cops look like idiots. They get a knock on the door and it is a Miss Tulip (Cicely Courtneidge) who insists on a bed to sleep on and a warm glass of milk with whisky in it as her car has broken down in the rain. They have no idea who she is but she is a force of nature. The couple goes to sleep - separate beds - and when they wake up in the morning Miss Tulip is sitting comfortably dead on a chair in the living room. The comedy kicks in when the sweet if not overly bright Constable shows up. Played by comedian Jack Hulbert who in fact was married in real life to Cicely for 61-years. He makes the film a pleasure. The inspector (Joss Ambler) shows up and immediately suspects that the husband is the killer. The mystery writer figures he can solve it of course. And in the middle of the chaos stands Dors looking adorable with a cat like smile as if she is enjoying the whole thing. The dog was borrowed from Terry-Thomas and is credited as Archie Terry-Thomas.