Dick Barton at Bay

Listen, old chap... Dick Barton at Bay was released as the third film in Hammer's Dick Barton series, but was actually filmed second. It wisely ditches much of the silly comedy that made the first film such a chore, and also isn't aimed so squarely at kids (although there's still a spunky schoolboy to lend Barton a hand). It's also a slicker production, with better editing and direction (Godfrey Grayson taking over the reins from Alfred J. Goulding).

"Blimey guv", you might be thinking, "this one's actually jolly good, then!", but even though it's an improvement over its predecessor, it's still got its fair share of problems: the script relies on some ridiculous contrivances and - by George - there's too much blasted Englishness for my liking, the dialogue almost a parody of the British stiff upper lip.

Don Stannard returns as the heroic special agent, this time tracking down some evil Eastern Bloc agents, led by Serge Volkoff (Meinhart Maur), who have stolen a deadly ray and kidnapped its inventor Professor Mitchell (Percy Walsh) and his daughter Mary (Joyce Linden). Together with his loyal sidekick Snowey White (George Ford), Dick engages in fisticuffs with a variety of henchmen, survives an attempt on his life by Asian hitman Chang (Yoshihide Yanai), and arrives at the villain's lighthouse lair in the nick of time to prevent the rascal from blasting the West's most important scientists out of the sky.

The film's most contrived moments include our heroes conveniently spotting Volkoff's three-fingered henchman in a pub (what are the chances?), female villain Anna spying Dick at the crash sight of an airplane (darn it!), and Dick and Snowey finding a high-explosive firework in a box in the lighthouse - perfect for blowing a trapdoor off its hinges. It's all just a bit too far-fetched, even for a Boy's Own-style adventure.

"Now look here, dear fellow," you might say, "don't be so hard on a film that is over 70 years old'. Don't get me wrong, my good man... I'm not saying that the film is unwatchable - if you're a fan of Dick Barton or Hammer films in general, this one's just about worth a go - but watch Dick Barton Strikes Back if you want to see the special agent at his best.

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

The film opens with a government agent being chased through the dark Limehouse streets (he's played by a young Patrick Macnee of the Avengers). He is killed and papers taken off his body. However before he could be killed he placed a call to Dick Barton, another agent. Barton gets on the phone just as the fatal shots ring out. This causes Barton to leap into action since he knew that his friend was assigned to protect a scientist working on a new "death ray". Unfortunately for Barton evil enemy agents have already broken into the scientists home and stolen the scientist and his invention. The rest of the film is a mad dash to find out who took the scientist and where they are hiding him.

This is a vast improvement of the first Dick Barton film, Dick Barton Special Agent. Actually its a pretty good, if workman like, thriller. Gone are all of the things that made the first film one of the all time stinkers,namely the slapstick humor, romance and meddling kids. They are replaced by straight forward action and mystery. This is, at last, the movie version of the classic radio serial. It makes clear how Barton ended up the hero of millions of people all over the UK, he's a perfect man of brains and brawn. Its is the sort of movie that one has come to mind when one thinks of 1940's mysteries. You have a stand up hero, a vile villain who masks his black heart by playing the piano perfectly, some great set pieces (the lighthouse sequence) and just enough seriousness to keep things from becoming silly.

To be honest its not perfect, the film can be a tad static and stiff when things aren't in motion, however its never long before some is getting shot at or chased, so the flaws are really minor annoyances and quibbles.

This is a good 65 minutes in another place and time. Worth a shot if you're a fan of the mysteries of not so long ago.

Ahead of listening to the podcast "The House of Hammer", I decided to watch the three "Dick Barton" films from this period. The first one is pretty terrible, but I rather enjoyed the sequel. Unfortunately, the third film is a little too similar to the first for my taste.

Professor Mitchell (Percy Walsh) invents a defensive weapon that will protect Britain's shores from enemy aeroplanes. He, along with his daughter Mary (Joyce Lindon) are kidnapped by Serge Volkoff (Meinhart Maur) a foreign (naturally) agent. With his last moments, Mitchell's guard phones his old friend Dick Barton (Don Stannard) and tries to warn him but is shot before he's able to give more than his location. The incomparable Barton and his associate Snowy (George Ford) are soon hot on Volkoff's trail.

It's poor form not to start with the fact that this third film was the end of the run not because the films were unsuccessful, but because the star, Don Stannard, passed away in a traffic accident. It's quite the shame as he was still a young man and had the franchise run longer, there might have been more of a cultural impact from the character.

The acting is again pretty terrible, never worse than in an appalling fight scenes. The story is much less interesting and involved than in the second film and to be honest, even at just over an hour it struggled to hold on to my attention. The ending is an anti-climax.

Aside from "Strikes Back" there wasn't much to enjoy from the other two films in the series, though it did make me think that a reboot is about due. A nice postwar period action-spy-thriller, but with modern acting, editing and plot standards. Easy money.

From the opening seconds you can tell this is in a different class to Special Agent, the first film of the three Dick Barton's. Background music and continuity are more professional and both gel to produce a tension sadly lacking before and the plot is also more cohesive, less slapstick and truer to the spirit of the thing. However the acting qualities are the same as before, Stannard playing Barton as a manly stoic clean-living clean thinking clean talking gentleman British God. See Red Dwarf for similarities to Arnold Rimmer, and his especially his parallel universe version who occasionally cropped up.

This time Dick and Snowy are embroiled in trying to foil an Iron Curtain attempt to steal fantastic British disintegrator ray machine invention. Was anyone in the cinema really worried at the outcome? Patrick MacNee was hard to recognise as the callow youth at the beginning, but even then he was being cast as an all-round Good Egg. It wasn't released until October 1950, over a year after Stannard's death in a car crash in July 1949.

A nice little unassuming potboiler, showing Hammer developing into a smoother operation.

This was the last of the Hammer Pictures Dick Barton movies. The lead Don Stannard was killed in a car accident after attending the wrap party for this movie.

Professor Mitchell is a scientist who has invented a death ray that can explode enemy planes from a distance. He and his daughter has been kidnapped by Serge Volkoff and his team of foreign spies.

Dick Barton got a coded message from Phillips, who was meant to guard the professor. Instead he was chased down and killed by two sinister men.

Dick Barton and Snowy have one clue. An imprint of a of a three fingered hand on the glass of the phone box that Phillips phoned from.

Volkoff has plans to eliminate Dick Barton himself.

Based on the BBC radio serial. The acting never amounts to much. The action and story is very much B movie standards. There is a scene when you know it is dummy thrown off from the top.