Blonde Bait

I saw her in Wicked Woman (1953) on youtube, some has dubbed this from VHS , for our viewing pleasure, I know this because the tracking at the bottom needs a bit of ajustment, but that's neither here nor there, what is important are these wonderful thespians and gems from the era...

I was a bit flummoxed for at some point this took a strange turn and sort of jumbled up everything sort of willy-nilly you see, and I ceased to be able to distinguish from regular dames and bad dames and good guys and bad guys since everything sort of took a big leap in the sophistic episodes of "Three's Company" see where everything sort of gets mixed up , but like the episode everything ambiguous became clear and resplendent and once again order out of chaos was of course restored! Huzza, huzza! lol,

But yes, this dame is cool, this dame really knows how to pose for the screen, I think most of the thespians especially the female actresses really knew about lighting as they were poised to pose for the camera, terrific!

A really fun film, a good show, a good show! Seeing Beverly run away into the night with roman candles exploding everywhere behind her made the flic for me, how about you?

Yes the late Thora Hird could be a comedienne in roles such as this playing Granny Rafferty, opposite American Beverley Michaels who plays her fellow inmate in a women's prison.Previous reviewers have outlined the plot of a tale of post WWII & the Cold War where both Scotland Yard and the U.S. State Dept mount a joint venture to entrap a traitor/murderer played by Jim Davis (most known in this country for playing JR's father in early episodes of "Dallas").The reference to "Lindberg" in the screenplay I assumed referred to aviator Charles Lindberg when the three escaped women prisoners and baby use an old MG to make their getaway, with Thora joking at the wheel.They make their getaway with the connivance of UK/US authorities before the denouement when Beverley finally realises the rotten relationship she had with the Jim Davis character.Yes I rated it 7/10 and was entertained on this, my first ever viewing.

Jim Davis is wanted for murder and treason. He's been in Great Britain since the War, doing all sorts of villainous stuff (as not explained in a monotonous manner by Richard Travis in an office). He meets up with girlfriend Beverly Michaels, makes a date to meet her on New Year's Eve to get married, and then disappears until the end of the movie; he's the Maguffin of the movie, and that's his personality.

Miss Michaels speaks to her manager in his office, since she's quitting show biz, but he doesn't like it, and in the struggle, he's injured. She goes to prison. Meanwhile, Travis, in yet another office, arranges for her to break out in the company of Thora Hird, April Olrich and Miss Olrich's baby, so she can lead them to Davis.

Director Elmo Williams was a fine editor, but as a director, he was a washout, and this movie is a fine example. Everyone speaks slowly and boringly, and the plot advances at a glacial rate. There are plenty of moving shots; normally they help a movie, but they gave me the impression that that cameramen were as anxious for the movie to get on with it as I was. There is one good sequence with Hermione Badderly as Miss Hird's nasty pal they hide out with. Otherwise it's a dull affair.

Fairly straight laced telling of a Jailbreak to nab a felon and turncoat by the State Department.

They use his girlfriend to lure him in and she happens to be blonde...hence the title.

Most of the story is about the contrived breakout and the end wraps up before you can say jailbreak.

Mildly entertaining while it lasts.

Another Hammer movie watched to go with the "House of Hammer" Podcast and after a few welcome weeks of otherworldly horror, we're back with a noiry crime thriller. I usually write my reviews a few days after watching the film, so as an aide memoire I usually make a couple of little notes. Here I've just written down one word, in big letters, "BORING".

Angie Booth (Beverly Michaels) a lounge room singer of some renown, plans to marry her shady boyfriend Nick (Paul Carpenter) on New Years Eve. With Nick out of the country, Angie is imprisoned for an assault on her murderous club promotor and will miss the arranged date. However, the British and American authorities are aware of the planned nuptials and, using an informant, 'Granny' (Thora Hird), try to organise a Prison break, so Angie can lead them to Nick.

Despite not one, but two, salacious titles, the version of this film I saw on Youtube was catastrophically dull. There appears to be two very different versions of the film, with "Blonde Bait" recasting Nick and adding new actors and scenes, I think I was watching the original though.

The women's prison seems remarkably clean and organised and there's not much antagonism going on between the staff and convicts. Some of the other prisoners have an impact on the story. Marguerite, played by April Olrich, has had a baby that will be taken from her and put up for adoption soon, as the rules of prison dictate and so joins the escape and bigamist Babs (Sheila Burrell) who has married twice and is released before the escape takes place. There are a couple of recognisable actors in this, recognisable to me anyway. One is Thora Hird, who is playing a character called Granny in 1956, it's almost incomprehensible that she'd still be playing elderly characters on TV fifty years later, she's great though. Gordon Jackson is also in the film too.

What should be an interesting thriller, about a state mandated prison escape leading to the capture of a wanted felon gets hopelessly lost in the mundanity of the second act, so much so that I can't even recall the specifics of if they catch Nick at the end. It's not surprising that a new ending was created for "Blonde Bait" as this one is very underwhelming.

This feels like a step backwards for Hammer, after the horror successes of the last couple of films and I'm glad it doesn't appear to last too long.