The Lady Craved Excitement (1950) User Reviews

The Movie Craves A Decent Performance

[boblipton · 4/10 · 25 April 2017]

This is a very poor comedy mystery, starring Hy (short for "Hyacinth") Hazell and Michael Medwin as a pair of cabaret entertainers who get mixed up in a sinister plot when Andrew Keir walks into the club and asks Miss Hazell to model for a picture of Anne Boylen. It's based on a BBC radio serial, created by Edward Mason, who also helped devise "Dick Barton", "What the Butler Saw" and the never-ending "The Archers". All but the last were filmized by Hammer about this time.

The performances are big and hysterical, casting no glory on the leads, despite the fact they were all capable performers. This one is definitely a quota quickie and no better than it ought to be. Unless you wish to see good performers when they were younger and much worse, this is one you can avoid.

Very low rent

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 18 December 2020]

THE LADY CRAVED EXCITEMENT is a low rent comedy mystery from the early incarnation of Hammer, written by the same guy behind DICK BARTON (which gets referenced in an amusing in-joke at one point). This one stars Hy Hazell, a singer, and Michael Medwin as a couple of buffonish cabaret characters who become involved with a plot involving a gang of jewel thieves and murderers. It's obscure stuff to say the least, defined by a series of over the top performers which turn this into farce at best. Sid James as the Italian is a cast in point, although Danny Green as the heavy is much better. There's plenty of action and spectacle and the chance to see an unrecognisable Andrew Keir early on in his career (and miles away from Quatermass), but the humour is very poor and childish.

Weak comedy mystery

[vandino1 · 27 September 2006]

This is a little low budget comedy-mystery based on a popular BBC radio series. Oddly named Hy Hazell stars as the title character, a music hall performer who, with partner and boyfriend (and co-star) Michael Medwin, blunders willfully into the criminal escapades of a trio of crooks. The boyfriend, the club owner, and Scotland Yard have all had their fill of her constant attempt to solve crimes, but this time she truly does. The comedy is sub-standard, woefully predictable stuff, and nobody really makes an impression. Medwin is a familiar face from many English comedies. Andrew Keir, later a robust and effective character actor in many films (Hammer films especially) makes his film debut here and he's fine, although virtually unrecognizable behind a beard and about fifty pounds thinner.

If you crave excitement don't bother with this

[malcolmgsw · 1/10 · 22 May 2017]

Made by Hammer Films before they started their profitable horror films.At this moment time they were making quota quickest which were low on quality and entertainment.The studio they are using is so small that there isn't room to swing a cat.Although there is a very reasonable cast it can safely be said that they would all go on to far better work.Sid James has a small part and has a truly awful Italian accent.Everyone overcast as if their lives depended upon it.There may have been worse quota quickness but they would have to be truly awful to compete with the total lack of quality displayed by this film.

Feeble, unconvincing comedy

[myriamlenys · 3/10 · 5 April 2024]

"The lady craved excitement" is a weak comedy with a rambling screenplay and an equally rambling plot. The intrigue deals with a male-female duo of cabaret artists who stumble upon a genuine criminal conspiracy. (Don't expect too much from the cabaret acts.) The various actors, poor things, go around either hitting someone on the head or getting hit on the head in return. In real life several people would have ended up in hospital with concussion or worse, but the violence is of a strictly cartoonish nature, with the victims going down in an instant and waking up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

There's much about "The lady" that speaks of sloppiness and laziness. For instance, one of the characters is a bearded eccentric who speaks of creating his magnum opus, a painting called "The execution of Anne Boleyn". He asks our heroine to model for him, playing the part of the ill-fated queen. (As the movie goes on, it becomes clear that the man wants to recreate the scene in a more unusual way.) Anyway, near the end the heroine does dress up as Anne Boleyn. Nothing about the costumes, the jewelry, the backdrop etcetera is right for the Tudor era. How difficult can it be, for twentieth-century Brits, to assemble a collection of objects that looks suitable for the historic period in question ?

So no, not recommended, there are far better movies out there.