Decent enough British crime procedural wastes a clever prologue to go conventional on an undercover assignment to nab a gang of fashion conscious drug smugglers. Too bad, that opening reel is a pip, as if Ealing Studios (home to Alec Guinness and eccentric little British comedies) made a film noir policier with an inspector from the Customs and Excise office rather than Scotland Yard. Pleasantly wry Nigel Patrick’s the agent sent to look into a complaint about naval amphibious landing vehicles running over a protected beach designated as an endangered bird sanctuary. Helped by local bird protector Joyce Grenfell, a buck-toothed Ealing regular, Patrick spots the interlopers (and their 80 proof contraband) thru Grenfell’s bird blind observation pit and . . . well, the rest of this putative film could just about write itself: local bird-watching territorialists against those sea-faring gin smugglers. But after the battle is won, what to do with the alcoholic loot? Drink, sell or dump? Mild hilarity ensues. Alas, my putative suggestion for the plot a road not taken; instead Inspector Patrick follows a lead from this small operation to a much larger one happening in Cannes where he comes across a yacht full of chic drug smugglers, falling for one of them too (Elizabeth Sellars). Standard doings from then on, though a car chase finale is neatly handled by journeyman megger Harold French and there’s fine nighttime lensing from C.M. Pennington-Richards, known from the Alastair Sim CHRISTMAS CAROL/’51. There's also an eccentric touch from bad guy Theodore Bikel, strumming out a tune about the various fates of his criminal forebears. More oddities like that might have perked things up. But all we get is a tag ending for bird lady Grenfell, off screen since the prologue, reminding us of the film this might have been.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: *Ealing Studios did make a comic smuggling pic. One of their best, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB/’51 with Guinness & Stanley Holloway.
No comments:
Post a Comment