Azione di controspionaggio

This is being advertised as part of a film noir collection. Its is definitely not noir. It is a cheap B&W second run British post-war espionage mystery. It has some very good London exteriors showing WWII bombed out building, streets, and vintage cars but that's about it. George Raft is his usual upright, erect, suave self and the story is hokey, naturally there is a female romantic interest thrown in as usual formula but it is not objectionable or at all a waste of time, it's a good display of a has-been American actor on the cheap to a a thrifty British production and that's all. It is watchable, you don't want to turn it off, so see it for what it is without any high expectations.

In one of his Lippert Pictures George Raft shot this one in London where he plays an FBI agent on the trail of some scientists who've been kidnapped in various western countries and presumably taken to the Soviet Union to work for the other side. To accomplish his mission Raft has to team up with Sally Gray of British Intelligence who is both pretty and useful.

By that I mean anyone who could reverse a custody situation and get George Raft in a hammerlock has to be a girl you can get serious about when the mission is completed.

Even though the film isn't quite 80 minutes it moves along at a ponderous pace. Raft looked bored throughout the film, his paycheck must have cleared and he was going through the motions. His days as a top star were over and he was reduced to Poverty Row Lippert Pictures to get enough money to pay that huge tax bill Uncle Sam was smacking him with.

Clifford Evans as the mastermind of the kidnappings had some interesting moments. But the film is definitely mediocre.

This is no noir, and at least on my disc, the sound was not good.

Many actors post-war went to England and did a lot of these B movies, which are done with next to no budget. Among the actors who participated: Dennis O'Keefe, Robert Preston, Dane Clark, and Cesar Romero. I have to say they're fun and sometimes atmospheric.

This one, with George Raft, has some good atmosphere - bombed-out London and some nice interiors.

In the story, nuclear scientists are kidnapped and taken behind the Iron Curtain. An undercover FBI agent (Raft) and a British agent (Frederick Piper) are assigned to capture the kidnappers. Raft sneaks into the country, escaping immigration, in order to draw attention to himself so he would be seen as wanted and nonthreatening.

What winds up happening is that the British agent's assistant, played by Sally Gray, ends up with Raft as they track the kidnappers.

This is pretty ordinary stuff. I like both Gray and Raft. Raft had a real warmth about him when he was at Warners, but I think he's one actor who needed a good director. Here he's elegant but monotoned.

Just okay. Unfortunately, this was Sally Gray's last film. She was invited to go to Hollywood but instead married a Lord who was in the House of Lords, stayed married to him for 52 years, and never worked again. He was 100 when he died; she was 91.

The story goes that her stepson was a friend of John Lennon's and is the subject of "A Day in the Life of a Fool."

Airplane engineers are being snatched off the street, so George Raft, an airplane designer, flies to London to take up Clifford Evans' job offer, only first he has to find him. This leads him to Sally Gray, who turns out to be working for British Intelligence. They start pursuing Evans together.

This is a rote movie and everyone seems to be putting in just enough energy to collect their paychecks. The script starts and stops for no clear reason, as bad guys try to kill Raft and then leave after the first attempt fails; a bad guy takes a swing at Raft, misses by several inches, and Raft falls down. The entire production is run in such a sloppy, uncaring manner that the viewer must be similarly unengaged.

There is some decent inadvertent documentary work in the site location; as Raft and Miss Gray wander about London, there are some nice views of still unrepaired war damage. However, given the generally low level of excellence, that made me think the film makers were ripping off shots from THE THIRD MAN and NAKED CITY.

This was Sally Gray's first movie since 1949 and her last. She would retire from the movies to become Baroness Oranmore and Browne, Baroness Mereworth in a fifty-year marriage and live to be 91. It's a happy ending that satisfies me.

I've seen Raft in many movies, and just don't get why people liked him so much. His acting is wooden, not just here, but in many roles. He's not particularly handsome nor charismatic. But whatever.

I like this movie because it's what we yanks consider a hollywood genre, but set and shot in the UK. It's refreshing to see a procedural done in another country. Similar, but different. And plenty of on location and street shots, not just endless soundstages. The camerawork even has a few imaginative moments.

But it's not special in any other way. I'm pretty good with british acting names and faces, and I don't recognize one here. It's rare that I recognize only one performer in a movie, in this case, Raft. I didn't previously know Sally Gray. I found it hard not to watch her. To me she looks much more american than british for that time period.

This could be a good movie for an update, a remake. It's got good bones.