Coup de feu au matin

Espionage Thriller that really takes awhile to take off, as the slow moving startup is meant to propel Joel McCrea into a Spy Ring and Set Up a Situation that may remind the Viewer of Hitchcock.

But this is rather awkward at first and never attains much Mystery or Suspense until things leave the Countryside. Herbert Lom's Performance borders on Broad Comedy and holds things back somewhat.

There is enough here to be an Entertaining Piece of Cold War Propaganda, but never really kicks into High Gear until the Final Act. Up to that point things are really Talky and Stodgy, but it does manage to display some Atmospheric Tension during the Chase through a Wax Museum and in the Bowels of a Cityscape.

Like CIRCLE OF DANGER (1951; see my review elsewhere), this is a British thriller with a lightweight American lead, in this case Joel McCrea; also like that earlier Jacques Tourneur film, this has a decidedly Hitchcockian flavor to it (down to a Bernard Herrmann-esque score, though he would only team up with The Master three years later!) and is, in effect, a livelier example of its kind. Interestingly, both Ray Milland (star of DANGER) and McCrea would work for Hitchcock on DIAL 'M' FOR MURDER (1954) and FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940) respectively. The film under review is based on a Geoffrey Household novel and, like Fritz Lang's similarly-sourced MAN HUNT (1941), it centers around a hunting aficionado whose favorite pastime lands him in hot water; the screen adaptation was itself penned by celebrated crime novelist Eric Ambler.

Abetting McCrea in his struggle are understanding wife Evelyn Keyes (she had already portrayed her definitive noir role in 1951 courtesy of Joseph Losey's THE PROWLER), Polish military 'mental case' Herbert Lom (unusually a good guy despite his obvious ambivalence) and sympathetic British Intelligence man Roland Culver. Their antagonists, then, are first-rate marksman Marius Goring (from the afore-mentioned CIRCLE OF DANGER but in a less showy role), sinister chauffeur Karel Stepanek and mysterious Austrian female Patricia Laffan (equally enigmatic off-screen, since the promise she showed in the definitive 1951 version of QUO VADIS was never delivered upon!); curiously enough, her alcoholic and uncommitted (to the cause) husband here – played by Frank Lawton (from 1935's David COPPERFIELD) – basically disappears halfway through the proceedings!

The exciting action takes us from McCrea's shooting grounds (doubling as a night-time airfield for the villains' purposes) through an impersonation game to a perilous train journey to a notable climax at London's world-renowned "Madame Tussaud's" wax museum. Here, Goring startlingly blows himself up to safeguard the all-important documents that a typically meek defecting scientist had brought over with him from the other side. For the record, this was released in the U.S. as SHOOT FIRST, which is the name attached to the TCM-sourced copy I watched. One final thing: former actor and Oscar-winning editor Robert Parrish had graduated to the director's chair shortly before this, in 1951 – with two more noirs which I should be watching presently, namely CRY DANGER and THE MOB.

Colin McGuigan gets this film exactly right: it's very Hitchcockian, and that is a compliment, but a throwback to Hitch in the 1930s, 10-20 years befoer this one was made in 1953. It's a very well made film, with a good story line and good actors, plus nice on-location shooting, but it looks and feels like it was made in the mid-late 1930s. If you just accept that, you will enjoy this tale of international intrigue. Joel McCrea gives a good, solid and believable performance to anchor the entire film; the villains are also believeably villainous, but not cartoonish; and Herbert Lom brightens up the proceedings whenever he is on screen.

Eric Ambler's scripts more often than not annoyed me by being muddled and artificial. This is no exception, and the first part of the film makes you squirm in uneasy impatience, but then things turn interesting as the plot unfolds. Hitchcock was very careful about always letting the audience know exactly what was happening, that major principle is missing here like in so many Hitchcock-inspired films. Joel McRea is generally reliable, but the real actor here is Herbert Lom as the Polish commandant in the service of MI5, he is wonderful in every scene and lifts the film out of the ditch. The intrigue is interesting, Joel McRea attempts to shoot a hare and hits a man with a buckshot, and the man is dead. No one thinks of the idea that the man could have been shot by someone else at the same time, two shots and two hits from a long distance, which immediately throws the film out of credible realism. There are Germans involved interested in atomic secrets, their leader Marius Goring always haughty and unsympathetic, but Roland Culver as the MI5 man also makes a good impression. Evelyn Keyes is the enjoyable character of the film, and Herbert Lom gives her the proper treatment. There is a great finale which saves the film, but the major asset is actually a great score by Hans May, which gives the right espionage atmosphere to the film, although the real thing is missing.

A Hitchcock like espionage movie shot by the American director Robert Parrish in England, in the early 50's. We had already seen this kind of try with Jacques Tourneur's CIRCLE OF DANGER, except that this latest film was not an espionage one.

It's surprising to see Joel Mc Crea in a non western feature. And it's a pretty good success. As far as I remember, and perhaps I am wrong because I did not see it since twenty years, the Tourneur's movie included a hunting party too, but perhaps not at the beginning, like this one.

We easily feel the British influence in this programmer, and not only through the actors. But the general atmosphere sounds nevertheless mainly from the USA.

A fairly good caper film.