Stephen Pickard

This film appeared on dvd region 1 about two years ago with little fanfare. A 50's Fox CinemaScope World War 2 story filmed in England directed by Ronald Neame and starring Clifton Webb with a great cast of British character actors. I guarantee the plot will keep your attention throughout. A good film transfer with great CinemaScope photography and the original 4-channel stereophonic soundtrack showcases the Alan Rawsthorne music score.

Stephen Pickard

ChristineCB

Yes, and a great collection of performances. Clifton "Shotgun" Webb. Gloria Grahame only needed quick thinking and a quivering lip.. Stephen Boyd will never get his greasy, slimy image cleaned after this performance - what a great bad-guy.

The choice of this story fascinates me. There were lotsa heroes. Some more important, some with larger roles. But to find this rather obscure one is amazing, and I'm glad it was presented on film.

I think the construction of the tense race to the apartment, then the re-think and the waiting - great construction of tension. And a fine closing scene at the tombstone by Clifton Webb.

bertie

Yes I've got the R1 disc. A very under-rated film, I think, with Clifton Webb excellent in the lead role. There was a documentary on something like the History Channel fairly recently about Ewan Montagu (Webb's character) which was interesting and made a good connection with the film.

The only real problem I have with the film, I'm afraid, is Gloria Grahame.

Steve Crook

Surely not. She is most memorable in that small role. Especially the breakdown when the Irishman comes to the girls' flat.

I like Cyril Cusack's cameo as the cab driver, picking up the Irishman, as well.

Steve

ChristineCB

It's probably the Accent Thing again, and I agree. I have NO IDEA why she couldn't have used her American voice. It's not as if there wasn't one or two existing in-country at the time anyway. Surely ONE of them could have flipped her hair in Bedford Falls. But getting past the accent thing, she could have gotten a "10" out of the East German judge for nailing it.

orpheum

If anyone is interested Ewan Montague,who is portrayed in the film by Clifton Webb,did write a book on his intelligence activities during the war.It is an aborbing book.However the sub plot with Stephen Boyd simply never happened.It was added to the film to give it a dramatic finale.In any event there were no German spy rings in this country other than those controlled by MI5.Spies arriving in this country were quicky captured and given the choice of cooperating or an early meeting with the hangman..That siad though it is a thoroughly enjoyable film of the type that alas they dont make any more.

Moor Larkin

That's interesting. I watched that movie a couple of weeks ago on the TV and I was particularly struck by the 'nation' issues. The IRA man (Boyd) was fiercely anti-British, to the extent he was prepared to give his life if necessary to foil them. The fact that his character was introduced by the film-makers makes me wonder if there was some deliberate propagandist intent, to make people sit up and think about the Irish/British argument......

In the same film, I was struck by the scene when the dead boy's father sharply contradicted the officer, pointing out that his son was Scottish, not English, although the English always thought that British meant English........

Both scenes/plots seem so superfluous to the plot, it made me wonder why they were in the picture. Boyd could just as easily have been A. N. Spy, not Irish and what was the reasoning for having a British/Scottish/English dispute over a dead body.......

People nowadays seem to think the 'Troubles' all started (in the modern era) in about 1969, but it seems to me watching/reading about, old Patrick McGoohan TV Plays from the 1950's, concerning contemporary Irish republicans, that there was something 'bubbling under' all through the post-war years.

[code]http://www.flickr.com/photos/29487363@N02/sets/72157606700675506/code]

Nick Dando

There are anti-British/pro-German Irish in Next of Kin, Against the Wind and I See a Dark Stranger. So there does seem to be a theme running here, both during and after the war.

Nick

orpheum

There were bomb attacks on London by the IRA in 1939 before the outbreak of war with Germany

NappieB

It's a fine movie and very underrated.

I think it's a fairly good period piece too....it's this sort of film that could be shown in schools today as an educational feature.

crush231

Good movie