The Notorious Landlady

Shot entirely in California (which was made to look like London), this was Lemmon's fifth picture with Quine, his third with Novak, and his first with Astaire. A clever mystery-comedy, it has many witty lines, some hysterical slapstick, and a generally good plot to whisk us along. Lemmon is a State Department employee who has been transfered from Saudi Arabia to London. There he rents a flat from Novak, who is under surveillance by Scotland Yard as a suspect in the case of her missing husband. Lemmon's boss, Astaire, and inspector Jeffries of the Yard ask him to snoop around, and he reluctantly agrees. Novak's husband, Reed, shows up, and she kills him after a batt...