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We Shall See

1964 film by Quentin Lawrence

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ7977745
Source-derived summary

We Shall See is a 1964 British drama film directed by Quentin Lawrence and starring Maurice Kaufmann, Faith Brook and Alec Mango. It was adapted by Donal Giltinan from the 1926 novel We Shall See! by Edgar Wallace, and was made at Merton Park Studios as part of the long-running series of Edgar Wallace Mysteries.

Plot

Alva, the mentally unbalanced wife of airline pilot Evan Collins, wants her husband to leave his job. However, she is tragically killed when someone throws a hive of bees into her bedroom. Police deduce that whoever was responsible knew that Alva was allergic to the insects. Each member of the household, both relatives and staff, comes under suspicion, as her psychotic behaviour has both alienated and given everyone a personal interest in her demise.

Cast

Maurice Kaufmann as Evan Collins

Faith Brook as Alva Collins

Alec Mango as Ludo

Alex Macintosh as Greg Thomas

Hugh Paddick as Connell

Talitha Pol as Jirina

Bridget Armstrong as Nurse Rosemary Layton

William Abney as Shaw

Donald Morley as Superintendent

Marianne Stone as Jenny

David Dodimead as surgeon

Rosemarie Frankland as waitress

John Kidd as solicitor

Stephen Jack as magistrate

Maxwell Foster as Clerk of the Court

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A routine but competently managed thriller, quite well acted. The plot works up steadily to the anticipated death of the psychopathic wife by bee-sting, and the introduction of the swarm into her room makes an effective climax. Otherwise not very remarkable."

TV Guide wrote, "Predating The Deadly Bees [1967] by three years, We Shall See is theoretically the first "killer bee" movie," but the reviewer concluded, "The rest of the picture ...

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “We Shall See” is 1964 film by Quentin Lawrence. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Shall, film and Quentin, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1964, 1926, 1967—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1964-01-01. For this dossier, Shall, film and Quentin is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1964 film by Quentin Lawrence” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7977745. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 1926 and 1967.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “We Shall See”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow We Shall See primary sources, We Shall See archive and Shall research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from We Shall See” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.