La vallée des aigles

The gist of this story is settled pretty quickly as a secret sonic device is pinched by "Sven" (Anthony Dawson) and "Helga" (Mary Laura Wood) the wife of it's inventor from their Stockholm home. Off they set across country, making for Finland and then the USSR. Hot on their tails are intrepid detective "Peterson" (Jack Warner) and the scientist "Ahlen" (John McCallum) who are both determined to stop them before they can sell the gadget to the Soviets. The espionage elements of this are all relatively plain sailing, but the photography of the Arctic wilderness as they give chase is what really makes this worth a gander. There are reindeer by the hundreds being herded by the locals; their lives free of technology and their innate friendliness meaning that these folks look after all comers. Just as that helps those pursuing, it helped those fleeing too. It all culminates in a pristine valley where the snow clings, precariously, to the sides of the mountains ensuring that the local population use only eagles to hunt - silence isn't so much golden as essential. Can the chasing pair catch up with their antagonists in time? Warner really only ever had one gear, and he doesn't challenge himself (or us) with his characterisation here. Dawson delivers competently as he usually does when he is the baddie, and the others contribute adequately, if maybe just a bit too verbosely, as the adventure slowly advances amidst the snow and ice to a denouement that is just a little different. It's nothing special, this film, but I thought the last ten minutes just about made it worth the watch - and, yes, there are a few eagles, too.

The storyline is typical of post second world war drama, with an inventor's electrical creation being stolen by his wife. Jack Warner gives the film strength with a solid performance as a police Inspector, and John McCallum gives a good account of himself as the inventor.

This film scores heavily with magnificent snow scenes, the mass of reindeer, being chased by wolves, and the eagles then combating with wolves. The avalanche brings you the power of nature.

At first, I could not place Nadia Gray, but then I remembered her from earlier films.

The storyline appears to drift between a Cold war story, a detective investigation, and a broken marriage.

It could have been better, but Valley of Eagles was a good effort.

VALLEY OF EAGLES starts off as a typical and oh-so-British spy thriller, with a scientist inventing a new type of machine that will serve mankind. Before long his secrets are stolen after he's betrayed by his own wife and assistant, so he must give chase. Where the film differs from the ordinary thriller template is that the action shifts to the snowbound locales of Sweden and an outdoor adventure follows.

Be warned: if you're an animal lover, you'll probably hate this film. Adventures undertaken by the central characters include encounters with reindeer, wolves, and eagles, and plenty of the poor beasts are executed or killed by the time the credits roll. However, the stark black and white photography is a nice match for the icy backdrop, and the film looks great at least. There's even some not-bad avalanche footage achieved on what is obviously a low budget. Watch out for Christopher Lee's cameo as a detective.

The Cold War was seldom chillier than this travelogue set in Lapland that begins with wintry location work in Stockholm (were we encounter Isak Borg's mother, Naima Wifstrund, and Gösta Cederlund, who had recently featured in Bergman's own Cold War drama, 'This Can't Happen Here'), before hero John McCallum and copper Jack Warner set off it hot pursuit of the film's 'MacGuffin': rectifiers & condensers for a device for converting sound waves into enough energy to light an entire city or (if the Baddies get their way) level them.

But this is just a pretext for a chase thriller framed around footage of reindeer, wolves and an avalanche with the Swedish actors dubbed into English and most of the rest shot back at Pinewood (which is presumably where the scenes featuring Christopher Lee & Euan Solon as a grim-faced pair of detectives were shot). Director Terence Young was reunited a few years later with villain Anthony Dawson on 'Dr No'.

A below par British action thriller. I use both words in their broadest terms as what is supposed to be a chase across the Finish mountains turns into a nature film on the lives of the Laplanders for a large length of the film.

The lead characters deliver their lines so woodenly that if you closed your eyes they could be reading out loud from a drawing room in Hampstead Heath, so any attempt at pace is lost, not that there was much of an attempt in the first place.

If anything you have to sympathise with one of the villains, on the grounds that they want to 'get away from it all'.

Only worth while if it is on TV on a wet afternoon, when it is marginally better than watching rain hitting the window.