A brief appearance by The Zombies places the time of the season quite neatly, though London doesn't so much swing as creak eerily.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Village Voice by Andrew Sarris
A pleasure to watch from beginning to end. [21 Oct 1965, p.21]
As in The Human Factor, Preminger approaches the mystery of human irrationality and emotion through logic and detachment; the effect is stingingly poignant.
The New York Times by J. Hoberman
The movie has its share of logical inconsistencies, although to dwell on them is to ignore its deliberate ambiguities and considerable panache.
Ahead of its time in its attitude toward unwed motherhood, director Otto Preminger's psychological drama has always gotten the same pro/con reaction that typifies Preminger's career. On the chilly side, it also has a great understated Olivier performance, an effective Paul Glass score and some of the era's best widescreen black-and-white photography. [28 Jan 2005, p.4D]
The New Yorker by Richard Brody
The film’s real charge lies elsewhere—in Preminger’s view of a jolting, disoriented age of rock and roll.
The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson
It walks a fascinating line between morbid humor and outright horror, and it consistently defies expectations by resetting them at every possible step.