ianlouisiana A few years before "Jigsaw" the County Borough of Brighton Police as it was called in those days was embroiled in one of the worst corruption scandals of the 20th century. From Chief Constable downwards many officers were arrested,some charged others sacked over a culture of taking bungs from local villains. It was known as the "Bucket of blood" case after the eponymous drinking club where the money changed hands. As a result morale fell exponentially and a once - proud force struggled for some years to restore public confidence. By 1962 green shoots were showing and detectives were able to set relatively confidently about their tasks without general opprobrium. Hence messrs Warner and Lewis were reflecting a more bullish attitude than they might have done a little earlier. Certainly the town had its seedy side.It was still the go -to place for dirty weekends with obliging landladies welcoming cash - bearing adulterers with open arms and certainly the shady relationship between the murderer and victim wouldn't have raised an eyebrow within or without the C.I.D. The film reflects the grinding monotony of most police work. In fact without DNA,CCTV,computers or other such aids it is remarkable that any serious crime was detected at all. A tribute to the doggedness of the officers and their determination to get not just "a" result - but the right result. Before it became a "Rainbow" city Brighton was very suitable to monochrome photography and "Jigsaw" captures its elusive spirit very well. It has become fashionable to dismiss British films before the New Wave directors got their middle - class Oxbridge hands on them as dull and provincial. This excellent example of the genre gives the lie to that calumny.

Brucey D A pregnant girlfriend is murdered by her lover, who we the audience don't see. A police investigation follows. We get to see the investigation from the perspective of the police, lead by Jack Warner. Eventually the murderer is discovered.This is a wee gem of a film, set in and around Brighton in the early 1960's. Post-war austerity is fading, and the swinging sixties are just around the corner, but the Brighton area looks a little seedy and run down, for the most part, and the locals fit right it. The film is shot in black and white, which somehow suits the film rather better than colour might have.Jack Warner (better know to the audience as Dixon of Dock Green at that time)is promoted to Detective Inspector in this film and he plays the role convincingly enough; in fact overall, the whole cast is excellent. However I agree with another reviewer regarding Yolanda Donlan's performance; 'a little overwrought' indeed. Maybe the director's wife gets special treatment...? John Barron has a small role in this film. Many will have seen him in 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin' in the 1970s, masterfully playing the irredeemably pompous and overbearing manager known as 'CJ'.John Le Mesurier has a great cameo role too.The film isn't fast-paced per se, but there isn't a moment in the ninety-odd that is wasted either. I found it quite engaging.Certainly worth watching, this one.

calvinnme ... perhaps if you pursue all of the little crimes you run into some big ones, because that is what happens here. The film opens with a couple lying in bed. The woman gets up and by talking to herself you quickly learn that the guy in bed with her is her lover, not her husband, and may very likely belong to someone else. Her angry babbling wakes the man, of whom you never see much more than his hands and you do not hear his voice. Once he is awake, she tells him she is pregnant and that he should start spending whole nights with her, finally make the break completely to her. He quickly grabs her across the face, she screams, and the scene changes.In Brighton a rental management company has been broken into, and the police are investigating. But other than the damage done to the door in the break-in, nothing has been taken but the company's book of leases. This makes no sense to the officer in charge, because if somebody wants to run out on their lease, why not leave town since breaking and entering is an even bigger crime? The owner of the rental company is unhappy with the way the investigation is run, and calls the detective's supervisor to complain. The supervisor asks inspector Fred Fellows (Jack Warner) to help out. Fellows starts by asking about the leases that were getting ready to expire, and drives out to the house where the lease was going to expire the next week. The police do find the house seemingly deserted. They look around, find nothing amiss but do find a trunk in the garage with a dismembered woman in it. Thus a breaking and entering case has just turned to murder.The problem is, this house was rented by a man, the police have no idea what his right name is, they have no idea who the woman is, and they have no motive. Because it was such a short term lease nobody in the neighborhood knows anything about the tenants. So the detectives begin to methodically go through any clue they can think of. They find a woman's name and address scratched on a pad in the house. They have the testimony of a woman across the street about the only time she ever saw the man outside during the day - it was from a distance, and then he had a vacuum cleaner in his hands and was paying for groceries, and they have the tools that were used to dismember the woman that were found in the house's incinerator. That's it. From there the detectives go on to actually solve the crime. The closest comparison I can make is that it is like the first half of Law and Order transported to Britain from New York City, and it is truly fascinating. There are lots of dead ends, several interesting people that the police run into during their investigation, and always the press hounding them for a story.I'd highly recommend this one.

Leofwine_draca JIGSAW is a well-shot, engaging crime story inspired by the true story of the Brighton Trunk Murders that took place back in the 1920s. Brighton always makes a picturesque backdrop for films - I guess that's why so many directors make use of it in their movies - and Hammer veteran Val Guest (THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT) makes the very best of his surroundings.Otherwise, this is a taut, well-focused detective investigation type film that plays out as a police procedural. We watch the gruff Jack Warner and his team as they go around following up leads and gathering clues, and there's never a moment for distraction or anything here that feels padded. Guessing the identity of the murderer is a tough business indeed, which is why JIGSAW keeps you watching from beginning to end.The supporting cast is also a delight, featuring as it does performances from Ronald Lewis (THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR), Ray Barrett (THE REPTILE) and Michael Goodliffe (A NIGHT TO REMEMBER) alongside a John Le Mesurier cameo. Guest's real-life wife, the statuesque Yolande Donlan, has a major role and is fine in it.