The Hostage

Ron Randell is almost invisible as the star of this stilted shoestring political drama presumably based upon the abduction and hanging of two British sergeants by Irgun in Palestine in July 1947. (A similar fate befell Albert Finney in his film debut a few years later in 'The Entertainer'.)

A few brief snatches are spoken of the language native to the mythical republic of Santanio similar to the Vosnian heard in 'State Secret'. I was surprised to learn it was based on a 1953 TV serial, since it already felt like a TV production cut down to eighty minutes; which would have explained why it felt so disjointed.

Give this film a huge miss. A low grade B picture where the acting is dire and the story line is nonsensical. Add to the mix some awful dialogue and you have an embarrassingly poor film.

I have to say that i always assumed that the star of this underwhelming film,Ron Randell,was American.So i was greatly surprised to learn through his biographical details on this website that he was an Aussie.In so many films including this one he had an American accent.Now after all these years i discover that he was born in Sydney.Maybe the makers of this film decided that it would be cheaper to hire an actor who could give a passable impression of an American accent than to hire the real thing.Anyway this film it has to be said is truly dreadful.The script is truly awful and the denouement has to be seen to be believed.If you are in to truly bad films then you can catch this on the Movies4Men satellite channel.