Standard-issue police procedural on the hunt for a lost toddler gets by on local color (Locality: London; Colour: EastmanColor) and an oddly complacent tone. (Other than Mom, the anxiety level might be better suited to a stolen house plant than a lost curly-headed tot.) David Knight and Julia Arnall, off-key and off-putting, are the parents, an American couple in London running down various rabbit holes and generally getting in the way of sensible Detective Inspector David Farrar. With a new lead to follow in every reel, classy cinematographer turned journeyman director Guy Green keeps things moving (there’s a neat surprise to end the second act), but the film’s main interest lies in Harry Waxman’s location work in the city and beyond, from a time when color photography wasn’t a given.* With the shiny, grain-free EastmanColor coming up fresh as paint on recent digital downloads.
DOUBLE-BLL/LINK: *Waxman had much the same task in SAPPHIRE/’59, now working his EastmanColor in the backstreets of London for director Basil Dearden on the far more interesting police investigation of a racially motivated murder case. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/07/sapphire-1959.html
No comments:
Post a Comment