Devil's Bait (1959)

Baker Keen helps police sergeant Jackson search for a loaf of bread baked in a poisoned container in a strictly routine suspense drama. A rat exterminator uses cyanide in a bakery. When one bakery pan and one loaf of bread become accidentally poisoned, a hunt for that loaf ensues. The story is engaging, if somewhat predictable. The telling of it mixes humor, gentility and genuine fear somewhat uneasily. I find that this kind of mixture detracts from the overall impact. I prefer a tighter and more monochrome focus. This mixture, however, seems to crop up in a good number of British pictures and be a generic aspect of them. The most memorable moments are those depicting a terrified blonde who realizes that the bread is poisoned and races to warn her companion, discovering poisoned geese along the way.