Dick Barton Strikes Back

There is just something about the theme music that forgives just about everything else with these entertaining, if unchallenging mysteries. This one sees the suave Don Stannard in the title role, on the trail of some dastardly villains bent on world domination using a mind-controlling frequency. Director Godfrey Grayson offers us quite a well paced intrigue with plenty of action, the double-dealing "Tina" (Jean Lodge) and a tense little conclusion that passes an hour easily enough. The production is basic, and in this particular story the audio effects of their device did prove to be actually quite annoying after a while. Luckily there is no real jeopardy whatsoever so that's soon sorted out. Though entirely predictable, I still quite enjoyed it.

The second of Hammer's short-lived Dick Barton series anticipates their sci-fiers of the mid-fifties, and being a film there's much more action than talk. It also benefits from extensive locations, leading up to a vigorous punch-up on - of all places - the Blackpool Tower; which is being used to transmit death rays!

Easily the best film in the Dick Barton trilogy, showing a cinematic professionalism the first two lacked. This was the last to be filmed but released second, sad to lose Don Stannard so young and promising in 1949. Apart from the Boys Own adventure storyline, and Barton speaking in capital letters, this was a good attempt at cheapo-noir, nice camera work and high production values being a constant source of surprise.

Gang of evil musical gypsies (can I put that nowadays?) led by ruthlessly evil Englishman (that always OK nowadays) have developed an evil sonic beam that will eventually be used to wipe Britain out and put it out of its misery. They experiment first by destroying thousands of people in two quaint English towns, the beam "instantaneously shrivelling their brains" - the carnage and the bodies seemed to have been cleared away by the authorities in less than a day. Sebastian Cabot as Fouracada the evil second in command who was marvellously over the top, is warned by Barton that "The Indemnity For Murder Is Not A Slight One" to no avail - I wish the film would have run another 3 hours just for their melodramatic battle of wills. The location shots of the stricken emptied town and later Blackpool and its Tower were very good and used efficiently. All I could remember of the film after last seeing it on TV in 1981 were the scenes in and up the Tower, I think that idea was a winner! During the climax the boss appeared to be using his suitcase in much the same way as a laptop would be - but he couldn't be - could he?

There are the usual silent stretches with background music for company as a reminder this was a cheaply made film, but Hammer did brilliantly well in disguising it.

I was finally able to see this in a VERY nice three-film boxed DVD set of Dick Barton Hammer films from the late 40s. The first two (D.B. Special Agent, and D. B. At Bay) were both pretty bleak. So, I went into the final film with no great expectations. I was REALLY shocked by how good it was. The film is greatly strengthened by some incredible location filming, especially the extended scenes atop the Blackpool tower. My personal favorite moment was the bandleader directing a real packed dance hall full of revelers. It gave the "Dick must save the world!" storyline a bit of added significance to see a bit of documentary Humphrey Jennings-like texture thrown in. The story itself, about a new "sonic" weapon that can kill whole towns with pure sound, was clever too...Four stars! Oh, yes, and the villain has a harpsichord; this is always a nice touch!

In preparation for the latest edition of the "House of Hammer" podcast, I watched the 1949 film "Dick Barton Strikes Back", a proto James Bond crossed with Sherlock Holmes character, for whom Hammer made a series of films.

Dick Barton (Don Stanard) and his associate Snowy White (Bruce Walker) are turned on to new threat by a US agent, who subsequently turns up dead. Fouracada (Sebastian Cabot) has come to the UK to test a new weapon, and is not prepared for Barton to threaten it's progress. When the inhabitants of a northern town are all killed, simultaneously, in mysterious circumstances, it's up to Barton to track down Fouracada and save the nation again.

I actually quite liked this. Even with the stiff upper lip of it all, the performances were mostly solid and the film looks a lot better than the Hammer films from just a few years earlier. At just 68 minutes the story whizzes along, putting Barton in danger Saturday morning serial style before showing an unlikely escape. There's a "Hooded claw" style silent overlord for the villains, the reveal of whom is pretty obvious, but doesn't undermine the film, even when he reveals the entire plan at his time of triumph. The best bit though is the consistent use of "The Devil's Gallop" which was his theme tune at the time but has, unfortunately for the sincerity of the film, been entirely corrupted for me by Mitchell and Webb's "Digby Chicken Caesar" sketch.

There's a bit of post-war xenophobia with the villains coming from an unnamed foreign country but looking an awful lot like Romany gypsy stereotypes. The noise of the sonic weapon, which we hear for lengthy sections of the film is extremely annoying. The character of Snowy really doesn't add much, other than reflecting how great Barton is and his obsession with getting a pint of Bitter.

But when the Blackpool Tower finale reached it's conclusion (and I put my headphones back on) I was reasonably satisfied with what I'd seen.