It's a Bet: A weird, old-fashioned game of hide-and-seek

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a soft spot for 1930s British comedies that move at the speed of a polite stroll. If you need explosions or tight pacing, stay far away. But if you like watching people in suits run around being vaguely panicked for no reason, you might get a kick out of this one. 🕵️‍♂️

The premise is simple enough to be a radio play. Gene Gerrard plays the reporter who thinks he’s cleverer than the industry he works for. We’ve seen this sort of thing before, kind of like the frantic energy in The Virtuous Thief. Everyone is shouting their lines just a little bit too loudly.

The disappearance act

Watching him try to be invisible is the best part, mostly because he fails at it constantly. There’s a scene in a restaurant where he’s trying to stay low-key, but he keeps bumping into people. It’s not exactly high-brow physical comedy, but it’s got a weird, frantic rhythm that grew on me.

The newspaper publisher character? Absolute nightmare of a person. You can almost see the gears turning in his head as he realizes he can exploit his employee’s absence for profit. It’s cynical in a way that feels surprisingly modern, even if the delivery is very much of its era.

• The background extras in the street scenes clearly forgot they were supposed to be acting.
• There is a door that squeaks in the background of almost every office scene. It’s distracting. I kind of loved it.
• The dialogue feels like it was written on a napkin during a lunch break.

Some of the supporting cast are just standing there, waiting for their cue. You can see one guy in the background of the newsroom just reading a paper and not even pretending to work. It’s those little, messy details that make me prefer this over a slick, modern studio product.

It’s not as polished as (Le petit roi), and it definitely lacks the focus of some better-known dramas from the decade. But there’s a loose, unbothered quality here. The movie knows it’s a trifle, and it doesn’t try to be anything else.

Is it a classic? Not by a long shot. But I didn't reach for my phone once. That's a win in my book. Sometimes you just want to watch a reporter get exactly what he deserves for being smug. 🗞️