A Matter of WHO: hunt for disease carrier (Movie)

A Matter of Who (1961) [D: Don Chaffey. Terry-Thomas, Sonja Ziemann, Alex Nicol] A case of small-pox arriving in London on an international flight triggers an international hunt for the source. Terry-Thomas plays the Health Department investigator working on behalf of the WHO, which makes the title an overly cute pun.

     The hunt forms the spine of the plot. Crooked oil-deal shenanigans, politics, love, etc complicate the story and add the thrills the audience expects. There’s even a helicopter. Fun and games, and a satisfying ending. Terry Thomas for once tones down his mad-cap eccentric character, the rest of the cast play their stereotypes well, the photography and music are unintrusive so we can focus on the story, such as it is.
     Later treatments of the dangerous disease theme focus on the work of containing it, etc. Here, the most interesting bits for me were the ones that showed how the disease-containment work was being done. 1961 was still culturally the 1950s, and the movie-makers of the time didn’t trust the audience to accept a quasi-documentary film, so they added the spice of intrigue and crime. An OK hour and a half of entertainment, with subtexts relevant for our covid-19 times. **