Crow Hollow



Ann returns to her flat one night to joyously share the news with her roommate: her and Robert are getting married!… After having only known one another for about a week. Her friend thinks she’s lost her mind, but Ann is in love and brushes her concerns aside. Robert is a kind, handsome young doctor. Who wouldn’t want to marry him? So she and Robert quickly get hitched and head off to his estate known as Crow Hollow. But Ann’s fantasy romance quickly takes a hit when they get there. Not only is Robert constantly working, but the home is also occupied by his three spinster aunts, who initially welcome Ann warmly, but slowly begin to make her uncomfortable. As does the family housekeeper, Willow, who seems to slink around the house and act more like a member of the family than an employee. As strange things start happening to Ann, she quickly begins to suspect that her warm welcome was just a facade, and that someone in the house is out to do her some serious harm.



Crow Hollow is a British mystery film from 1952, and is based on the 1950 novel of the same name by New Zealand novelist Dorothy Eden. That’s a name that may or may not be familiar to most today, but she was a woman who was prolific enough to have been known as one of the 10 best-selling novelists in the world back in 1980, so apparently the lady was a hard worker. But based on this movie, I’m not sure I’ll be too inclined to check out much of her oeuvre though. Because as far as mystery stories go, this one isn’t all that impressive.



And to be clear, I’m not saying this is a bad film. Perish the thought, because it’s actually pretty good. But this is also a typical, kinda stiff, British B-movie. So when I say it’s good, I’m holding it to those standards, and not something like an Alfred Hitchcock suspense piece. It’s a short movie (less than 70 minutes) that tells a quick, easy to follow mystery story that isn’t too complicated and ties up the story by the end. There aren’t any subplots. There aren’t any twists. It’s just a nice, simple mystery that drops hints along the way and then mercifully finishes without an annoying “dun-dun-dun!” at the end. Considering how so many films these days are obsessed with being open-ended in the dim hope of being able to tack on a hokey sequel sometime later down the line, watching any film with an actual ENDING is a wonderful feeling.



Of course, that’s not to say that the film is perfect and doesn’t have its share of problems. The movie often feels more like a filmed play than it does a proper film. It’s even split into two distinct parts, complete with headers, which may have been part of an actual planned intermission, even though the film is short enough to not warrant one. And the film’s pacing often feels disjointed, with the first half being much slower, as it slowly introduces the story, characters and the main mystery. While the second half really ramps up the tension as we try to figure out if someone is really trying to kill Ann, or if this random woman we know nothing about, and who readily agreed to marry a man she’d known for less than a week, is in fact nuttier than a flippin’ fruitcake. Of course – SPOILERS! – it’s the former and someone is genuinely out to get her, but – END SPOILERS! – the film plays out the question for as long as possible to keep the viewer in suspense. If you’re good at these types of films you can probably guess what’s going on fairly quickly. And if not, more fun for you.



And the only other ding I had against the film turned out to be a relatively minor, though highly amusing (at least to me). And that is: apparently nobody had a conversation about how they were spelling the main character’s name. Because in the credits it’s listed as “Anne”. But at one point in the film, actress Natasha Parry has to write her character’s name in the family bible, and she writes it as “Ann”. So she (or whoever’s hand that is writing the name) either wasn’t paying attention to the script, or the person who typed out the credits wasn’t, and nobody double checked either of them. None of which is any kind of deal-breaker of course. More like an interesting little notation.


But for the sake of this post I’m using Ann, because presumably you know how to spell your own damn name.

So other than that, I thought Crow Hollow was actually a nice little mystery tale. It’s not something that I would consider a must-see of the genre or anything, but it’s a fun, quick and easy enough watch that I think most casual mystery fans would probably enjoy it. The acting is very good, it looks surprisingly nice, the husband was genuinely a nice guy and didn’t turn out to be an absolute dick (for once!), it has a couple nifty “arty” shots, and I liked the subtle touch of the crows outside becoming louder and more obnoxious as the movie went on to match the rising tension of the characters in the film. Although we never actually see any crows, so big boo to that. But barring that absolute travesty of an oversight, I can think of no major complaints. So if you’re looking for a simple, relatively quick mystery to watch, then this isn’t a bad choice. But if you’re the type of mystery fan who’s looking for something more complex or….er, cerebral (I guess?), then I can’t imagine that one is going to make you flex them thinkin’ muscles much, so you might not be interested.

Crow Hollow is available on a variety of streaming services.

Crow Hollow is also available on DVD in various territories, though it largely appears to be currently unavailable.

And there’s always the book if you can find it. But it’s kinda old, so good luck with that.

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