Dick Barton Strikes Back

In preparation for the latest edition of the "House of Hammer" podcast, I watched the 1949 film "Dick Barton Strikes Back", a proto James Bond crossed with Sherlock Holmes character, for whom Hammer made a series of films.

Dick Barton (Don Stanard) and his associate Snowy White (Bruce Walker) are turned on to new threat by a US agent, who subsequently turns up dead. Fouracada (Sebastian Cabot) has come to the UK to test a new weapon, and is not prepared for Barton to threaten it's progress. When the inhabitants of a northern town are all killed, simultaneously, in mysterious circumstances, it's up to Barton to track down Fouracada and save the nation again.

I actually quite liked this. Even with the stiff upper lip of it all, the performances were mostly solid and the film looks a lot better than the Hammer films from just a few years earlier. At just 68 minutes the story whizzes along, putting Barton in danger Saturday morning serial style before showing an unlikely escape. There's a "Hooded claw" style silent overlord for the villains, the reveal of whom is pretty obvious, but doesn't undermine the film, even when he reveals the entire plan at his time of triumph. The best bit though is the consistent use of "The Devil's Gallop" which was his theme tune at the time but has, unfortunately for the sincerity of the film, been entirely corrupted for me by Mitchell and Webb's "Digby Chicken Caesar" sketch.

There's a bit of post-war xenophobia with the villains coming from an unnamed foreign country but looking an awful lot like Romany gypsy stereotypes. The noise of the sonic weapon, which we hear for lengthy sections of the film is extremely annoying. The character of Snowy really doesn't add much, other than reflecting how great Barton is and his obsession with getting a pint of Bitter.

But when the Blackpool Tower finale reached it's conclusion (and I put my headphones back on) I was reasonably satisfied with what I'd seen.