Our unplanned BritNoir mini-fest ends with what promised most, but delivered least of three. (See right below for the other two.) ‘Most’ because it should be right up Hammer Films’ alley, the British studio best known for reinvigorating classic horror icons with kinetic charges of action, sex & lurid TechniColor . . . just not yet. Instead, top contract director Terence Fisher, who made most of those fright films, is held down by a dogged whodunit plot, drab monochrome interiors and a budget that threatens to quit before the wrap. Dane Clark, the American ‘ringer’ on board to ensure Stateside distribution, is prospectless & blind drunk at a snazzy London bar when he’s approached by a beautiful blonde with an unlikely proposition: Marry me tonight and I’ll pay you £500. What he doesn’t know is that the gal in question is using him to stop an upcoming forced marriage; that her father will be murdered tonight; that she’ll disappear just as fast; or that Clark will be tagged with circumstantial evidence as suspect #1. (Told you it sounded promising.) Clark and the otherwise all-U.K. cast are fine, but the unraveling of lies & motives doesn't add up. Nor a necessitated warmup between Clark and Belinda Lee’s femme fatale. Didn’t anyone on set notice the chemistry developing between Clark and spur-of-the-moment helpmate Eleanor Summerfield? Send Lee down for the count and have Clark & Summerfield walk off into the sunrise. If only they had enough cash for the re-takes.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: In Hollywood, Clark was typed as backup man whenever John Garfield was too busy, but could be his own guy given a chance. See him at his best, and most distinctive, in MOONRISE/’48, the last film worthy of its great director, Frank Borzage. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/01/moonrise-1948.html
No comments:
Post a Comment