36 Horas

Dan Duryea stars, with a very poor supporting cast in this grade B British crime drama, the work of UK hack director Montgomery Tully. Fifties audiences deserved a lot better than this, and Hammer Films several years later found its niche in horror, delivering consistently far better entertainment.

The first reel is dull and uneventful, with Dan walking through his role as an American military officer on a 36-hour pass in London. He goes to find his estranged wife, and we're then treated to a syrupy flashback of how they met and fell in love, utterly saccharine and just as uninteresting as the opener. Elsy Albiin, about as obscure (and unappealing) a 1950s actress as one could find, plays the wife blandly.

At this point the story takes a sudden U-Turn into crime and murder, with the viewer supposed to root for Duryea, but his character is unappealing. It's a long slog to finally finish off the story by Steve Fisher, usually a capable film noir writer, whose better work includes "Dead Reckoning" and "Lady in the Lake".

The basic idea for "36 Hours" is decent....and it could have been a really good British film noir movie. However, it suffers from a huge problem...the reliance on a bad and often overused cliche...the total stranger who helps a wanted man. Hitchcock used it in "The 39 Steps" but so have many other film makers....which is why I wasn't overly impressed by the movie.

Bill Rogers (Dan Duryea) is in the US Air Force and he's on a 36 hour layover in London. He takes this time to go home to see his wife...only to find the apartment empty. After investigating, he finds her in her new apartment...and it appears as if she's been up to no good while Bill was away. But before he can get any answers, he's hit from behind. When he awakens, he finds her dead next to him....shot with his gun!! Seeing he's behind the 8-ball, Bill decides that instead of going to the police, he'll investigate on his own. Now this in and of itself is an overused cliche...but it gets worse when he meets a young lady who, inexplicably, instantly believes him and takes MANY risks to help Bill....none of which makes any sense! It's a shame, as the main plot idea is sound...but what follows isn't.

Duryea is sound in the lead but even a decent performance by him cannot erase cliched writing....and it is cliched (as I mentioned above) and should have been better. In spite of this, the film still is interesting and worth seeing....but nothing more.

During a 36-hour leave, Major Bill Rogers (Dan Duryea) travels to England to meet his wife Katherine 'Katie' Rogers (Elsy Albiin). Bill is training in the United States and left his wife alone for several months. But soon he learns that Katie has moved from their apartment to a new one to have encounters with men. Bill heads to the address and when Katie arrives, he is knocked out by a stranger in her apartment. Further, the man uses his pistol to kill Katie and frame Bill. Now he has less than 36 hours to find the killer and prove his innocence.

"Terror Street", a.k.a. "36 Hours', is an entertaining Hammer film noir with Dan Duryea in the lead role. The plot has flaws, the fights choreography is weak but the storyline is engaging. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "36 Horas" ("36 Hours")

Terror Street (AKA: 36 Hours) is directed by Montgomery Tully and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Dan Duryea, Elsy Albiin, Ann Gudrun, John Chandos and Eric Pohlmann. Music is by Ivor Slaney and cinematography by Walter Harvey. Plot finds Duryea as Major William Rogers, who is in London to see his estranged wife. When he arrives at her apartment, he is attacked and knocked unconscious. Upon awakening he finds that his wife has been shot and killed with his own gun. Taking to the streets, Rogers must find the real culprits before the police find and charge him with the murder.

Simple and effective little B crime picture out of Hammer Productions that plays on the wrong man on the run theme. There's the odd little film noir touch here and there on the production side of things (night time wet cobbled streets/Duryea under a street lamp/finale in swinging shadow), which somehow warrants it being part of the Hammer Film Noir Collection, but really it's best to approach this one as purely a race against time drama that is competently acted (though the script rarely allows Duryea chance to brood and be emotionally battered), well paced and a film that retains a good mystery element throughout. Safe viewing and film making really. 6/10

In 1950, American producer Robert Lippert formed a business alliance with Hammer studios. Under the agreement, Lippert would provide American acting talent - frequently shop-worn stars or just supporting actors who fancied a profitable trip out of the country - while Hammer would supply the rest of the cast and the production facilities. Together they would split the profits. Famous for his concern with the bottom line, Lippert produced over 140 films between 1946 and 1955, characteristically genre pieces such as I Shot Jesse James or Rocketship XM. For the British deal, most of the films were noir-ish thrillers - and include this title.

The American noir icon Dan Duryea is the best thing in 36 Hours, which is at its strongest in the first half. He plays Major Rogers, a flyer smuggled into the country to discover what his wife has been up to during his absence away on duty. Shortly after he catches up with her, she is dead, leaving the stunned Rogers waking up next to her body with just a few hours to prove his innocence. Duryea's opening scenes, mostly played solo as he explores his wife's apartment piecing together her new relationships, are the essence of noir - an alienated man, lost in an environment where moral certitudes are missing. Unfortunately the script by Steve Miller (responsible for earlier classics such as Dead Reckoning, and Lady In The Lake) grows less interesting as it proceeds, and the final complexities are forced and unconvincing. Along the way, Duryea brings life to his relationship with Jenny (Ann Gudrin), equally as good as the unfussy woman who believes his story. Kenneth Griffith also makes impact as the weasely Slosson - a character which, on a different continent, would no doubt been of interest to Elisha Cook Jr.