Bank clerk Ralph Richardson fails to report home at seven for the first time and all that was once order becomes mystifying chaos: it seems that the safe at his social club has been rifled, the caretaker murdered, and 24 hours are missing from his life. William K. Everson: Ralph Richardson, according to Michael Powell, was a tremendous actor who never really understood screen acting. He probably understood it even less when, as here, he was also-in an interesting experiment-his own director. The plot is a good one, but suspense is lessened by the way Richardson directs his role while remaining indifferent to the others, and plays his role so sympathetically that the possibility of his turning out to be the murderer is somewhat remote.