Cita mortal

While playing, Erik (Jon Whiteley) finds a gun at a bomb site and accidentally shoots a friend. He immediately runs away.

Once ballistics are compared, the police learn it was used in an unsolved murder ten years earlier.

Since the victim was in the army, a hard-nosed MP (Steve Cochran) becomes involved in the case. He has no interest in finding the boy, just the gun.

His attitude changes when he meets Erik's distraught mother Elsa (Lisabeth Scott).

Just one problem. The murderer knows Erik has the gun and is looking for him as well.

Holes the size of Buicks in this one. First of all, what a bunch of lousy shots. During a relentless shootout, no one is even grazed.

Cochran is beaten in the head, and it really looks as though his head is being bashed in. However, it is only a "small concussion" and he's back to work with nothing wrong the next minute.

Also, Erik, with his face on page 1 of the paper and his face plastered on every building, races around town with ease.

Cast against type, Lizabeth Scott delivers a heartfelt performance, and George Cole is an effective villain. The handsome Cochran is able to show some softness, where he is usually a tough guy.

Okay B movie. The actors deserved better.

The most interesting thing about this Val Guest directed thriller is its use of actual London locations, something of a rarity at the time, and which gives it that touch of realism missing in the script. Overall, "The Weapon" isn't a bad little B-Movie, about a boy, (Jon Whiteley, Britain's favourite child star until Haley Mills came along), who finds a gun in some ruins and accidently shoots another boy with it. Of course that means young Whitely takes off while said gun had been used in a murder ten years before and it's up to Steve Cochran, Herbert Marshall and seemingly not very concerned mother Lizabeth Scott to find the boy before the killer does as well as catch the killer at the same time. It's a decent enough plot and Guest handles it more than competently. Unfortunately the performances let it down making this more of a guilty pleasure rather than a contender but it's still a pleasure and worth seeing.

This little second string effort from Republic Films was cunningly photographed in London after the Blitz, and there are echoes of The Third Man in much of the atmospherics, as a kid in the run from a crime he did not commit hides at night in crumbling ruins near the Thames, and hungry during the day, hires on for a ham sandwich in a warehouse gearing up for day traffic. The kid flushes out an actual murderer, and the two of them get wrapped up with the two Hollywood actors used for marquee bait, Lizabeth Scott and Steven Cochran, who do their best to make something of not much, with a romance budding in the ruins. Both actors manage well enough, though in their past each could be electrifying; poor Herbert Marshall walks through an uninspiring bit as an English inspector, and the screen does light up with the fascinating and lively appearance of Nicole Maurey as a "professional hostess." If you don't expect a lot of suspense built on logic and honest tension, but are happy with a tour of London at Night and some time with Hollywood Stars going through their paces. this is not a bad 78 minutes at the movies.

Post War British a decade past, hence the genuine bombed-out ruins where a pistol (THE WEAPON) is buried from an unsolved wartime murder, and local little boy Jon Whiteley finds it, accidentally shoots a bully, and runs like hell...

Morphing Val Guest's thriller from war to noir as Whiteley's Erik hits the dark shadowy streets while worried American widow/mom Lizabeth Scott, in her penultimate still-young big screen role, hitting the right emotional marks, is charmed by shady Brit George Cole while putting up with ultra-serious military investigator Steve Cochran...

And Cole, as the sole heavy, has the most fun here, getting to both sneakily and violently interact with side-characters (while charming Scott), including scene-stealing French starlet Nicole Maurey as a tough yet wispy showgirl just past her prime, who eventually shares an emotional turned sizzling/sexy scene with Cochran...

Meanwhile, in the thankless leading role, the handsome WHITE HEAT actor (who slowly warms up to Noir veteran Scott) plays THE WEAPON like a throwback gumshoe more than an MP, and for the sparse run-time, director Val Guest throws everything into the picture including sudden deaths, chases, rooftop fights and race-against-time suspense.

Whilst out playing with his friends, young Erik Jenner finds a gun and accidentally shoots another boy, believing he's killed the young lad, he goes on the run. Erik has inadvertently found a weapon, that's connected to another murder.

This was a very watchable and enjoyable 80 or so minutes, the opening ten minutes were terrific, very shocking, and whilst the rest of the film doesn't quite have the same, it's still very interesting.

The best element, the atmosphere, it looks fantastic, some really nice camera work too, Val Guest truly did elevate the film.

You think you know where the story is heading, but of course there's more going on than meets the eye, the presence of Mark Andrews, and his reason for being there changes the whole story.

The acting is a mixed bag, the young Jon Whiteley is excellent as Erik, considering his age he offered up a lot more than several of his seniors here, Herbert Marshall, Lizabeth Scott and George Cole were all good, if I'm totally honest I found Steve Cochran a little wooden.

6/10.