The Green Cockatoo

From the prolific writer graham greene. Eileen is heading to london to look for work. When she arrives, she crosses paths with a mob of crooks and murderers. And dave connor, the man they are after. She's completely innocent, but is now in it up to her eyebrows! Falsely accused, she's on the run. Can eileen stay out of jail long enough to prove her innocence? To the coppers, and to jim ? Pretty good suspense. Low budget shortie B film from twentieth century. Directed by william menzies. Greene was nominated for one of his other works, fallen idol. Menzies had already won two oscars for other works. The lead, john mills had won an oscar and a bafta. And the green cockatoo is the name of jim's pub. It's not bad. Pretty simple story.

This feels more like something from the fifties rather than the thirties. It's dark, moody and grittily realistic. It's a beautifully photographed really atmospheric Film Noir.... just a shame that John Mills is so utterly awful.

Were John Mills not in this, it would have been something special. People might today reflect on it being the first proper Film Noir. All the classic tropes of that genre are perfectly exemplified in this... but John Mills, no! Why he was cast as a seedy, back-street club owner defies all known logic. His character was clearly based on James Cagney but Mills' impersonation of the great man is truly cringey. You want to hide behind the sofa with embarrassment for him as he trots out lines which seem straight out of an early Warner Brothers gangster flick - on the level! Any minute you're expecting him to call someone a dirty rat. Clean cut thirty year old John Mills is not a gangster.

It's so difficult to ignore this ridiculous casting that it spoils the whole picture which is a shame because apart from him, it's actually a good film. If you didn't know better you'd guess it was made at least a decade later. The acting is a million miles away from what you'd expect from a 1930s film - incredibly realistic and natural. Lovely Rène Ray is perfect as the sweet naive young thing plunged helplessly onto the nightmare rollercoaster ride into an unimaginable unknown.... but John Mills - no!

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".

This has some good ingredients to make a jolly, if not exactly, menacing murder story - but it's all just way too fluffy and talky. The doey-eyed Rene Ray is "Eileen" who arrives into London very late one night. At the station, she encounters "Dave" (Robert Newton) who offers to show her an hotel where she might pass the night. What she doesn't know, is that her good Samaritan has fallen foul of some crooks and a station fracas ensues and he is mortally injured. Before he croaks, he gives her a message to give to his brother "Jim" (John Mills) in the eponymous nightclub. She meets the brother, but a rather unlikely series of mishaps befall the pair as they are being sought by the police and the hoodlums. Aside from some singing and dancing that one wouldn't normally attribute to John Mills, the thing is entirely procedural with little by way suspense or peril; and saving a rather curious performance from Frank Atkinson as the butler "Protheroe" would be instantly forgettable.

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!