The Green Cockatoo

Robert Newton comes to see his brother, John Mills, at the Green Cockatoo club where Mills sings and dances. Mills tells him that if he keeps on going in the direction he is going, he'll wind up dead. As soon as Newton leaves, he is stabbed by some thugs who want his piece of the last job.... but when new-to-London Rene Ray passes by, they can't finish Newton off in front of her. Newton takes her to a small hotel, where he does die, and the landlady thinks she did it, setting the coppers off after her. Before Newton dies, he tells Miss Ray too get word to his brother at the Green Cockatoo; through a series of events, she doesn't realize he's Newton's brother, but takes a shine to her and helps her evade the police.... for a while.

Director William Cameron Menzies directs with more of an eye for set design than performances, but the performers up to their roles. Looking at it, knowing that Graham Greene wrote the story it is based on, and had a hand in the script, you can see his fingerprints all over it; what might be coincidence in another's hands looks like the workings of fate. Can the two of them find a happy ending? With Bruce Seton, Allan Jeayes, Bill Shine, and apparently a role for Googie Withers, although I couldn't spot her.

I've just seen this film tonight and since nobody else appears to have done a comment, I'll do it while it's fresh in my mind. Briefly, the story concerns the murder of Robert Newton who has double-crossed a gang who fix greyhound races. (The track seen briefly in the film appears to be Hackney.) John Mills plays Newton's brother and Rene Ray the girl who is wrongly suspected of the murder. I'm sure John Mills will be the first to agree that his accent varies wildly throughout the film- he seems to be doing a sort of James Cagney character with a bit of posh West End and cockney thrown in. Robert Newton comes out best although he dies early on. Bruce Seton plays a bad guy; we're used to seeing him as a policeman. The action sequences are well done, (they were obviously trying to make the film as tough as possible) but the talk goes on far too long between the fights.

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.

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 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!