Busman’s Honeymoon – 1940 | 83 mins | Comedy, Mystery | B&W

Plot Synopsis

MGM-produced romantic whodunit based on the 1937 novel by Dorothy L Sayers. The film was directed by the talented Arthur B. Woods, unfortunately an early casualty of WW2, at Denham studios near London. Americans Robert Montgomery and Constance Cummings aroused some national indignation when cast as such the essentially British sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey and his crime-writing bride Harriet Vane but they acquitted themselves satisfactorily, even though some of their thunder is stolen by a particularly colourful supporting cast that includes a morose Robert Newton, Seymour Hicks resourceful butler, Leslie Banks and Googie Withers.

Lord Peter Wimsey (Robert Montgomery) gets married to mystery writer Harriet Vane (Constance Cummings), and vows to drop all detective work whilst at his honeymoon hideaway in deepest Devon. Alas, the couple are soon arrive in a hotbed of village blackmail and become involved in yet another murder when their butler (Seymour Hicks) finds the dead body of the previous tenant, Noakes, in the cellar. Just as the newlyweds plan to flee the scene as part of their pledge not to become involved in detective work – Scotland Yard’s Insp. Andrew Kirk (Leslie Banks) arrives and the couple receive a summons to appear in court. They once again attempt to flee Devon but a traffic policeman inexplicably beckons them into a car crash, when they subsequently go in search of Constable Tom Sellon it transpires he has fled across the moors and is making his way to Plymouth.