Das Gangster-Syndikat

Terror Street (AKA: 36 Hours) is directed by Montgomery Tully and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Dan Duryea, Elsy Albiin, Ann Gudrun, John Chandos and Eric Pohlmann. Music is by Ivor Slaney and cinematography by Walter Harvey. Plot finds Duryea as Major William Rogers, who is in London to see his estranged wife. When he arrives at her apartment, he is attacked and knocked unconscious. Upon awakening he finds that his wife has been shot and killed with his own gun. Taking to the streets, Rogers must find the real culprits before the police find and charge him with the murder.

Simple and effective little B crime picture out of Hammer Productions that plays on the wrong man on the run theme. There's the odd little film noir touch here and there on the production side of things (night time wet cobbled streets/Duryea under a street lamp/finale in swinging shadow), which somehow warrants it being part of the Hammer Film Noir Collection, but really it's best to approach this one as purely a race against time drama that is competently acted (though the script rarely allows Duryea chance to brood and be emotionally battered), well paced and a film that retains a good mystery element throughout. Safe viewing and film making really. 6/10

I did remember in some bonus material that Dan Duryea was totally opposite as Hollywood stigmatized him in his countless crook's roles, in fact he complained it largely for his pals, now on this American-British co-production he had finally his good guy's moments, maybe it was the mistake, the picture has innumerable qualities, dark, intense, a true noir and having London's fog atmosphere, like "do you want a cup of tea??" reading some reviews posted here which l'd to disagree with them, meanwhile l've respect all comments, but my vision of cinema was and ever will be by myself, watching a little portion may occur in a bug, maybe watching twice should be a best baseline, it's already happened with me many times, notwithstanding redressed each issue in its turn, the DVD experience is quite different from TV, in this last one we always lost many unnoticed details and cannot turn back at once!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Dan Duryea stars in "Terror Street," also known as "36 Hours" from 1953. Though this was filmed in Britain and takes place there, the cars had the steering wheel on the American side for some reason.

Duryea is Bill Rogers, an American soldier, returns to London, where he was once stationed, when he hasn't heard from his Norwegian wife Katherine (Elsy Albin) in some time. He arrives at their apartment to find her gone and letters he sent to her unread. Her neighbor finally admits that Katherine is now living in an apartment in the west end.

Rogers convinces the young man at reception to let him into the apartment - mainly because he says if not, he will report that the employee is listening in on private phone calls.

Turns out the apartment is one fancy place, but before learning how it is that Katherine has moved up in the world, Rogers is knocked unconscious. When he regains consciousness, he finds that Katherine is dead, his service pistol was used, and it is in his hand.

Rogers' plane to return to the U. S. is in 36 hours - so he has that long to find out who killed Katherine. On the run from the police, he encounters a soup kitchen worker (Ann Gudrun) who believes his story and endeavors to help him.

Duryea is very good, as is the rest of the cast, including Eric Pohlmann and John Chandos.

The problem with the film is that the writing is weak. First of all, why the soup kitchen worker, whom he surprises after he sneaks into her apartment, didn't run for her life is beyond me. Also, Rogers doesn't turn to the police; he decides to investigate for himself in the typical innocent albeit wanted man way. There is also no big surprise as to who killed Katherine.

Katherine's story turns out to be somewhat interesting, however, and because I like Duryea, I'm giving it six stars.

Despite its bad press, "36 Hours" (1953) is not a total write-off. True, Dan Duryea is miscast as hero rather than villain and the girls are not much to write home about. But it's beautifully photographed by "Heads" Harvey (called "Heads" because of his fondness for placing the top of the actors' heads right against the frame line) and directed with a surprising amount of style by Montgomery Tully. The support cast lines up as one of the most solid assembled by Hammer with Eric Pohlmann and John Chandos as the heavies, Russell Napier and Michael Golden as detectives, Kenneth Griffith as the psycho, Lee Patterson in a tiny role as the co-pilot, and best of all, Harold Lang as the desk clerk.

Dan Duryea stars, with a very poor supporting cast in this grade B British crime drama, the work of UK hack director Montgomery Tully. Fifties audiences deserved a lot better than this, and Hammer Films several years later found its niche in horror, delivering consistently far better entertainment.

The first reel is dull and uneventful, with Dan walking through his role as an American military officer on a 36-hour pass in London. He goes to find his estranged wife, and we're then treated to a syrupy flashback of how they met and fell in love, utterly saccharine and just as uninteresting as the opener. Elsy Albiin, about as obscure (and unappealing) a 1950s actress as one could find, plays the wife blandly.

At this point the story takes a sudden U-Turn into crime and murder, with the viewer supposed to root for Duryea, but his character is unappealing. It's a long slog to finally finish off the story by Steve Fisher, usually a capable film noir writer, whose better work includes "Dead Reckoning" and "Lady in the Lake".