One of the better films from the middling Boulting Brothers, John & Roy, builds suspense as disillusioned nuclear scientist Barry Jones threatens to detonate a stolen ‘device’ in the heart of London. Posting a letter directly to the Prime Minister demanding a halt to all research & development weapons programs, our mild-mannered terrorist is soon identified by an even more mild-mannered Scotland Yard team, but remains unfound for days as the clock ticks down. Lenser Gilbert Taylor (of DR. STRANGELOVE; HARD DAY’S NIGHT; STAR WARS; THE OMEN) steals honors with superb on-location London shooting, but can only do so much with airless office interiors and an evacuation sequence that gets about half of its potential due to a tight budget. (We know Londoners love a good queue, but they aren’t this well behaved!) Plot twists no more than adequate, but a rich cast of characters with amusingly Po-Faced police & politicians nicely contrasted against the eccentric lower-class locals where Jones hides with his nuclear valise. Yikes! And check out the gas lighting fixtures in one of the flats he stays at. Gas, still in domestic commercial use in 1950? Who knew? Not quite the nail-biter the Boultings wanted, but the suspense factor well served by John Addison's perfectly ‘spotted’ music score.
DOUBLE-BILL: The bombs do go off in THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE/’61, altering the planet’s axis and heating things up in Old London Town.
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