Associated British-Pathé
Directed by Henry Cass
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Janus Films/Criterion Collection)
Middle aged farm implement salesman Alec Guinness is told he has weeks to live during a routine doctor's visit. He is single with no family or friends, so decides to quit his job and spend his savings at an upscale hotel in a resort town. Freshly decked out in a used suit, he quickly becomes the object of speculation among the elite at the hotel. He wins at gambling, is approached for advice and lands a job offer, all without doing much of anything. He also begins to fall in love with the hotel head housekeeper. One day none other than the doctor for whom his obscure disease is named for shows up as a guest and tells him he has been misdiagnosed. He can barely experience his new lease on life before an ironic and tragic twist ending. Guinness is good as usual, but the plot depends too much on improbable coincidences, and that twist ending is a bitter pill to swallow.
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