The Green Cockatoo

At the start of his career, Robert Newton connected with producer Alexander Korda, who introduced him to film audiences in 1937 with small parts in a few movies. He played a barrister alongside Laurence Olivier in 21 Days Together, which was shelved for three years, shared a scene with Vivien Leigh in Dark Journey, acted with both in Fire Over England, and was in I, Claudius, which was shelved for thirty years. It was his memorable, likable role in The Green Cockatoo that propelled him to the next batch of films. By 1939, he was a star.

Robert Newton starts off The Green Cockatoo in confident, Cockney swagger. He doesn't seem at all like an inexperienced actor, and as you watch him, you've completely forgotten that John Mills got billed above the title in the opening credits. He's a bit of a bad boy, and when he crosses his gambling cohorts, he receives the ultimate punishment. He's only onscreen for fifteen minutes, but since he was so magnetic during his scenes, and since he's talked about by the other characters the rest of the movie, it feels like he had a much bigger part.

Alas, we have to say goodbye to Bobbie. The good news is John Mills takes over and is just as magnetic. He punches bad guys, flirts around with the beautiful romantic lead, Rene Ray, and is more energetic than I've ever seen him. Plus, when he gets mad and his hair gets mussed, he's awfully cute. But more importantly, he does a very good job in this obscure movie as a completely different character than he usually plays. He plays a performer in a nightclub, and he sings and tap dances, showing talents no one knew he had!

Rene Ray is given a difficult part: her character is incredibly stupid, but she has to make the audience root for her anyway. She's very pretty, and that doesn't hurt, but she manages to convince the audience she has very good intentions. Even though I didn't agree with what she was doing, I was rooting for her anyway.

Obviously, I liked this movie, so I'll recommend you give it a watch. It's only an hour long, so you might want to pair it with another flick for the evening, like Odd Man Out. But it's very entertaining, and you get to see John Mills tap dance!

A gangster, Dave (Robert Newton) who double-crosses some other gangsters finds himself in desperate trouble in "The Green Cockatoo."

Warned by his brother Jim (John Mills) to get out of town quickly, Dave goes to the train station. He has an altercation with the gang and is knifed. He latches onto a young woman, Eileen (Rene Ray) who has just arrived in London from a small town. He tells her that he can bring her to a good place to stay, and she accompanies him.

You really have to suspend disbelief that a young woman would just go off with a stranger. And it gets better. Once she's in her room, and he has left, he suddenly returns. I'd be screaming my lungs out.

However, she sees that he's hurt and agrees to help him. Unfortunately, he dies, and the landlady thinks she did it. Before he dies, he gives her a message for his brother at the Green Cockatoo.

With the police and the gang after her, she finds The Green Cockatoo. She doesn't know anything about Jim, a song and dance man there, and to get away from her followers, she starts wandering around the upstairs of the club. She meets Jim, not realizing he's the man she's looking for.

Despite Eileen's strange behavior in the beginning, this is a fun film. John Mills is delightful singing and dancing. In one scene, as he attempts to hide Eileen from the police, he says she is his new performing partner.

He sings "Smoky Joe" - all she has to do is say the words "Smoky Joe" when he pauses. It's hilarious. She is supposed to not be able to sing, but you can tell by her off-key "Smoky Joes" that she actually had a good voice.

Recommended - nice British noir from 1937.

Although today the term 'B-movie' is taken to be a bad or cheap film, this isn't exactly what Bs were back in the 1930s and 40s. A B-movie was a short film (about 50-70 minutes) that was relatively cheaply made and it was intended to be the second movie in a double-feature. But they were not necessarily good nor bad...they were just short and economically produced. And, when you watch "The Green Cockatoo", you're watching a British B-movie...so American studios were not the only ones making such pictures.

A very naive (and rather stupid) country woman (Rene Ray) is going to live in London. Aboard the train is a very weird man who talks about the evils of big cities...and he is a most ridiculous character who completely telegraphs what's coming next. What is that? A gambler (Robert Newton) is stabbed by some fellow thugs after he cheats them and he dies in her arms a bit later. It looks as if she killed him and she runs to avoid arrest. She goes to the nightclub owned by the brother (John Mills) of the dead man to tell him about the killing and to get his help. What's next? See the film.

The film is a mixture of good and bad. The production values, noirish camerawork, and most of the acting is very nice. What isn't is the leading lady,...she has virutally no personality and is too passive (such as when Jim Connor is being attacked...and she just stands there doing nothing). They also make her a bit too stupid. As a result, the story is a mixed bag and is reminscent of a cheaper and less stylish version of Hitchcock's "39 Steps".

With direction from William Cameron Menzies and a script by Graham Greene, The Green Cockatoo should have come out a whole lot better than it was. The film was what we call a B production and over there they call a quota quickie. In this case quick was not good because haste made some sloppy waste.

Young Rene Ray a girl from the sticks arrives in London and almost before she knows it she's got herself involved with gangster Robert Newton who gets stabbed by another mob for betraying them in a dog race fixing scheme. Newton dies in her room, but not before naming his killers and telling her to get in touch with his brother John Mills who has a song and dance act at a club in Soho called The Green Cockatoo.

The biggest thing that The Green Cockatoo has is that it shows off some musical talents that a lot of fans including myself didn't know that John Mills possessed. Unfortunately Graham Greene's script is rather incoherent, possibly the fault of some bad editing on this quota quickie.

Both Mills and Newton would certainly go on to bigger and better things. I'm sure neither was impressed by The Green Cockatoo as I wasn't.

I've just seen this film tonight and since nobody else appears to have done a comment, I'll do it while it's fresh in my mind. Briefly, the story concerns the murder of Robert Newton who has double-crossed a gang who fix greyhound races. (The track seen briefly in the film appears to be Hackney.) John Mills plays Newton's brother and Rene Ray the girl who is wrongly suspected of the murder. I'm sure John Mills will be the first to agree that his accent varies wildly throughout the film- he seems to be doing a sort of James Cagney character with a bit of posh West End and cockney thrown in. Robert Newton comes out best although he dies early on. Bruce Seton plays a bad guy; we're used to seeing him as a policeman. The action sequences are well done, (they were obviously trying to make the film as tough as possible) but the talk goes on far too long between the fights.