Date with Disaster

Goodness gracious! What a caper! Hartnell's heist is in the paper.

Don't get too excited, this is no 'Rififi'. Hartnell, Kaufmann and Shaw's attempt to carry out a daring robbery in the dead of night falters at every stage, from broken drill bits to a stalling getaway car that just about gets away, narrowly beating an on the beat Bobby, in hot, but ultimately hapless pursuit.

The bogies are soon nosing around Hartnell's modest terraced house, which appears to be situated in an alibi free zone, whilst the cocky, caustic Kaufmann is hitting the bottle and mouthing off indiscriminately. Oh!....and there's a love triangle too with beautiful Shirley Eaton the centre of attraction for honest garage owner, Tom Drake and the insidious Kaufmann.

Simplistic and one dimensional, the plot leads to a murder, a laughable punch-up and the most feeble minded moment of self incrimination imaginable. It should all add up to a listless, insipid viewing experience. So why did 'Date With Disaster' leave me sporting a grin as wide as The Thames? Perhaps it's due to the fundamentals of story telling. By stripping everything down to the basic essentials, the movie's weakness is transformed into a strength, creating a simple, economical guilty pleasure. An entertaining, undemanding, eminently watchable little crime flick.

Here's a foggy notion. A review that's ALL in rhyme. If you second that (e)motion. I might try it out sometime.

Don't let the cheapness of this British B-movie put you off, because it's actually a pretty neat little thriller with a good sense of time and place to recommend it. The storyline is very, very typical for this genre of film, but a seasoned cast acquit themselves well with the material. The film was adapted by Brock Williams from his own novel and directed by B-movie maestro Charles Saunders (he of WOMANEATER infamy).

The storyline is set in a car dealership where a couple of the employees are crooks planning the robbery of a local business. At the same time that this criminal plot evolves, there's a romance developing of sorts between the business owner and a new female employee. What follows is reasonably interesting and never less than watchable.

Although he plays only a minor role in the proceedings, the best actor in this is William Hartnell giving a delightfully shady performance. Richard Shaw is incredibly sinister looking as one of the gang members. Tom Drake is the typical imported American star but is quite likable with it. Shirley Eaton is here too but I was quite surprised by how poor her acting is; perhaps Saunders was in too much of a hurry to make her do many takes. In any case, for a film which clocks in at just an hour in length DATE WITH DISASTER is worth your time.

The above actor shown in a blue shirt in the film poster, holding a blonde actress (Shirley Eaton), was evidently "promoted" by the producers from film extra to talking featured part in this 1957 British "B" film as he appears in the film credits which I saw on "Talking Pictures" channel 81 yesterday.

As a 72 year old I love watching these type of films with views of the capital blissfully free of double yellow lines, resident parking only, parking meters , traffic wardens etc. as it reminds me of what London used to be like in the 1950s when you could park in the high road and could park where you desired and did not need to wander around fruitlessly looking for a free space.Also I like seeing vintage cars like the Humber Hawk, Morris Minor and police Wolseleys.

The captioned actor because of his appearance was usually cast as a villain and in "Date with Disaster" was no exception.At least he was recognisable because of his looks.In "A Night to Remember" (1958) Richard was cast as an extra as a member of "Titanic"'s crew with one line to speak which was "She"'s going!" said on the deck as the liner prepared for her final descent and which was probably nearer to the actual historic facts than any similar film about this maritime tragedy.

Shirley Eaton was obviously the "eye candy" in the captioned film and in the course of its length had romantic scenes with Maurice Kaufman, Tom Drake as well as having Richard Shaw thrust himself on her.Of course with the British board of film censors criminals could not appear to profit from their misdeeds and this film was no exception.Who can forget Shirley painted head to toe in gold as Jill Masterson in "Goldfinger" (1964). which must be her seminal film role although I remember her in "Three Men in a Boat " (1956) as "Sophie" which she announced in seductive tones! As to the rating of the captioned film, I awarded it 6/10 mainly due to Shirley's appearance.

This is an odd film - the cast don't gel at all. The story is the usual run-of-the-mill stuff as a gang carry out a robbery but soon discover, with the police on their tail, that one of their number isn't reliable so turn this case of robbery into one of murder. William Hartnell's "Tracey" is the henchman who holds this together but "Sue" (Shirley Eaton) and "Miles" (Tom Drake - presumably drafted in to bolster US box office attendance) have all the chemistry of yesterday's scrambled eggs. The photography is basic and the production standards are decent enough but the ending is just a bit too bit hammy.

Tom Drake and Shirley Eaton must be the most mismatched leads to be seen in any British B film.Drake is third billed in this film having been parachuted in as the mandatory American actor to help get an American release.Shirley Eaton gives probably the worst performance of her whole career.She just cannot find it within herself to register any sort of emotion.This means that the acting honours go William Hartnell without breaking sweat.The story is a routine crime film where the crops fall out after the robbery.However the last few minutes are so badly staged and acted that any tension that may have been worked up is totally lost.