with vivien leigh's star turn due to her performance as scarlett o'hara in "gone with the wind" (1939), korda shelved "21 days" for two years before releasing it to columbia pictures. bosley crowther in his review for "the new york times", said, "true, it is no deathless drama—is little more than a cultivated penny-thriller, in fact—and miss leigh, as the party of the second part, is required to devote her charm and talents to nothing more constructive than making the apparently inevitable parting from poor mr. olivier seem exceedingly painful, indeed. but it is a highly charged "meller," rigid throughout with suspense and nicely laced with much tender emotion."