Blind Adventure

"Blind Adventure" is an agreeable low-budget adventure film and while it won't change your life, it is worth your time.

"Blind Adventure" begins with an American (Robert Armstrong) stumbling into a London home and seeing what appears to be a dead man! He immediately leaves the flat and gets help, but when he returns only a moment later, the body is gone and everyone inside behaves as if nothing has happened and Armstrong is crazy. However, a woman staying there in the flat (Helen Mack) realizes SOMETHING is amiss and the rest of the film is like a jigsaw puzzle, as the two of them and a new friend (Roland Young) all worth together to figure out what's really going on--and with spies, blackmail and the sort, it's all pretty exciting.

While the film is easy enough to forget, it has an interesting plot, decent acting and some agreeable supporting actors. I could say more about the film but I don't want to ruin the mystery.

In London, businessman Richard Bruce (Robert Armstrong) is a stranger to the city. He gets lost in the London fog and stumbles into the wrong house where he discovers a dead body. A man runs out and disappears into the fog. Richard gives chase and bumps into a seemingly different person. They go back together to the house but the body is gone and the people there are incensed.

The situation is convoluted but a little fun in the way of a manufactured mystery. I think the fog really helps. It's a big part of the plot and gives a nice spooky tone to the movie. Running around the chimney is just silly. It's a mystery with its tongue fully in cheek. Every once in awhile, there is a silly line that comes out of nowhere. I do wonder if the dead man should stay dead. By being alive, the dead man just adds more to the complications.

People who ran the B picture and poverty row studios long realized that fog could mask a low budget on a film. And when you set a film in London it's a requirement.

Newly arrived American Robert Armstrong is itching for a bit of night life so he goes out on a foggy night in London town and hears some screams coming from a house. Finding the door open he walks in and finds a dead body. But when he summons the police they find no dead body and people thinking Armstrong is a bit balmy.

But he does make a friend in Helen Mack who decides the American stranger is one she can trust. Of course the whole thing is resolved by the end.

The whole thing is shot from Armstrong's point of view as he meets a lot of varying characters and tries to figure out who he can trust. Turns out he can't trust too many.

Although the leads are fine and would work together in Son Of Kong, the film is stolen by Roland Young who with cockney accent plays his own lower class version of the amateur cracksman replete with some really droll dialog.

Fans of Roland Young should not miss this one.

Never quite imagined Robert Armstrong as the romantic male lead -- he's best as Carl Denham in KING KONG. This is from KONG's director, Ernest Schoesdack, but is not nearly as memorable. Some rather talky scenes seem static and dull. Some of the 'cute' bits have dated very badly. But there's one good plot twist in it. And it's always good to see Ralph Bellamy at work. The cast works hard and makes it passable. So I'd say it's a minor work but worth seeing for the cast. Schoesdack has done better. On a smaller palette, he doesn't quite know what to do. The foggy exteriors of "London" (all a backlot) look pretty good. But the villains are overcome rather tamely.

If you like old mystery/comedies then this tasty morsel is for you. You'll be watching action and comedy with equal doses of each. The story line is pretty original and unique which is rather surprising. The cast has a bunch of eccentric English folk as well as an American guy and a good looking Canadian chick.

It is set in foggy London. It's that kind of fog that you can't see ten feet in front of you. There's bad guys, a burglar, a general, a very eccentric English dowager, a murder, a party full of typical upper crust English odd balls, and, well by now you get the idea. I strongly recommend it. It's excellent.