Meticulous watchmaker Harry Hawkins has a very successful side-line as an assassin for hire. His latest job should be simple. But for all of his careful, clockwork planning, he could not have anticipated the intervention of a vacuum cleaner salesman named William Blake. A very black, very British comedy of manners and misanthropy, with a startling lead performance from the great Alastair Sim, as the most genteel of criminal psychopaths.