The film was not well received by critics. Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" wrote that "it seems that neither Miss Bergman nor Mr. Hitchcock has tangled here with stuff of any better than penny-dreadful substance and superficial demands." "Variety" called it "overlong and talky, with scant measure of the Hitchcock thriller tricks that could have sharpened general reception," while John McCarten of "The New Yorker" wrote that "this picture simultaneously succeeds in insulting the Australians, the Irish, and the average intelligence." Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" wrote: "The triangle performances are splendid, but the lines and situations the three principals are called upon to face are trite indeed ... Jame's Bridie's script, from a Helen Simpson novel adapted by Hume Cronyn, has little to be proud of, is indeed unintentionally hilarious at times." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" was also negative, writing: "The story is not enlivened by any qualities in the dialogue, which is crude and frequently stilted, or in the direction, which surely represents the nadir of Hitchcock's present period. It is extraordinary that this director, responsible for some of the most brilliant British films of the thirties—lively, fast, and full of incident—should return to this country from Hollywood for the sake of a ponderous novelette, which even more than "Rope" shows a preoccupation with complicated camera movements of no dramatic value whatsoever."