Harry Hawkins [Alastair Sim] is a freelance assassin hired to blow up Sir Gregory Upshott [Raymond Huntley], a pompous London businessman. Through his courtship of Upshott’s spinster secretary, Marigold [Avril Angers], Hawkins learns that Upshott will spend a weekend with one of the firm’s typists at a seaside hotel called The Green Man, where he plans to plant a bomb concealed in a radio and leave it in the hotel lounge. The setup promises a tense, dryly humorous collision of wit and danger as the plan edges toward completion.
When Marigold travels to Hawkins’s home to confront him, she is attacked—though the moment isn’t shown to the audience—and left for dead by Hawkins’ assistant McKechnie [John Chandos], who discreetly hides the body in a grand piano. The grim discovery comes when William Blake [George Cole], a young vacuum cleaner salesman, arrives and goes next door, accidentally alerting Hawkins. Hawkins’s accomplice then moves the body, while the unsettled Blake alerts Reginald Willoughby-Cruft [Colin Gordon], whose fiancée Ann [Jill Adams] becomes entangled in the ensuing panic. Reginald returns to find the two in a precarious position under the bed, and his furious exit compounds the strain on their engagement. The tension escalates when the supposed “corpse” lurches into the house through the French doors, collapses again, and cryptically tells the terrified pair that Upshott will be blown up that night at precisely 22:28 in The Green Man.
At The Green Man, Upshott arrives with his shy secretary Joan [Eileen Moore], hesitating to register before a drink. The hotel waiter [Michael Ripper] reminds guests they must order food before 10 pm because of the Catering Act, a bureaucratic quirk that heightens the domestic comedy of the evening. Hawkins enters and sits in the lounge, feigning appreciation for a violin concerto performed by the Leader of Trio [Vivien Wood] and her two fellow musicians. The bomb itself sits hidden inside a radio tucked into Hawkins’s suitcase, and he uses the lounge’s musicians as a distraction while the plan unfolds, even as he moves the trio into the bar as Upshott and Joan rise to dine.
Not knowing which name Upshott will use to register, Ann and William press their search, convinced that Upshott will be alone and using a false name. They fix on the name Boughtflower and pursue the lead, inadvertently aligning themselves with the hotel’s other guests. As the clock nears 22:28, the tension in the lounge becomes almost unbearable, and the trio resumes playing while Hawkins urges them to quicken their tempo, pulling the audience deeper into his dangerous game.
Back in the dining and lobby areas, Ann and William clash with the landlord as they try to convince him of the danger and evacuate everyone. Hawkins has the radio on in the lounge, and its programmed time announcements fuel the suspense: the broadcast claims 22:24, prompting William to realize the hall clock has misled everyone. He acts, guiding a cautious evacuation and attempting to save Upshott from his own vanity-driven peril. In a final, kinetic moment, William hurls the radio toward the sea seconds before it explodes, ending Hawkins’s plan in a collision of metal, police intervention, and a chaotic getaway by Hawkins and his assistant.
As the aftermath unfolds, Reginald Willoughby-Cruft’s public radio appearance—a dramatic reading that unexpectedly veers into a scathing diatribe against Ann—adds a bittersweet coda to the evening. The couple, who have weathered a night of fear, finally share a tender moment of relief and connection as they drive away, having escaped the hotel’s explosive climax and found solace in each other’s company.
The film features a colorful ensemble that threads its way through the farce and menace, with standout turns from the tight, sardonic wit of Alastair Sim as Hawkins, the pompous bravado of Raymond Huntley as Upshott, and the soft-spoken tension of George Cole as William Blake. The supporting cast adds texture and texture to the comedy of errors: Avril Angers as Marigold, John Chandos as McKechnie, Jill Adams as Ann Vincent, Colin Gordon as Reginald Willoughby-Cruft, Eileen Moore as Joan Wood, Vivien Wood leading the Trio, Michael Ripper as the waiter, Arthur Brough as the landlord, and Richard Wattis the doctor who threads through the hotel’s corridors of comedy and peril. In the wings, the film’s wider world—police, the hotel’s staff, and other guests portrayed by the ensemble—keeps the tension balanced with humor, misdirection, and a dash of seaside charm.
The atmosphere combines sly, dry humor with a pervading sense of threat that never fully tips into darkness, maintaining a playful menace as the characters maneuver around the ticking clock, the misnamed Boughtflower, and the ever-present threat of disaster. The result is a brisk, entertaining ride that respects its intricate setup while delivering character moments that feel lived-in and true to the film’s spirit.
