thesmothete

Given the reviewer hype, this is a very disappointing effort: video arcade action with virtually no dialog; poor direction (new-to-the-series director Mike Newall) with characters sporadically departing from previously established personae; rife with discontinuities, insufficient context (there is a misplaced reliance on viewers having memorized the book) and bad editing; Michael Gambon's inability to comprehend the concept that Headmaster Dumbledore is supposed to be an old man, not an angry young man wearing a beard (I do so miss Richard Harris's characterization); and, not least, much of the sense of wonder engendered by the prior films has not survived.

Neither plot nor characters (especially Agnes Moorehead as Madge and Clifton Young as the gunsel) are readily believable in this tale of an escaped convict seeking the one who framed him but, with Humphrey Bogart (Vincent Perry, whose face doesn't appear on the screen for the first half of the film) and Lauren Bacall (who is at her most seductive, eyebrows notwithstanding) in the leads and suspense thick enough to cut with a knife, who cares? Most notable for Bogie sipping a froo-froo drink through a straw.

This undercover-secret-service-agents-infiltrate-counterfeiting-ring film is heavily dependent on exceptionally fine noir lighting and camera work under the direction of Albert Mann which help to maintain a high degree of tension, notwithstanding its pseudo-documentary format (complete with voice-over narrator) and somewhat stilted acting. Wallace Ford is positively slimy in the supporting role of Schemer, a hood-fallen-in-influence.