Coup de feu au matin

A Hitchcock like espionage movie shot by the American director Robert Parrish in England, in the early 50's. We had already seen this kind of try with Jacques Tourneur's CIRCLE OF DANGER, except that this latest film was not an espionage one.

It's surprising to see Joel Mc Crea in a non western feature. And it's a pretty good success. As far as I remember, and perhaps I am wrong because I did not see it since twenty years, the Tourneur's movie included a hunting party too, but perhaps not at the beginning, like this one.

We easily feel the British influence in this programmer, and not only through the actors. But the general atmosphere sounds nevertheless mainly from the USA.

A fairly good caper film.

"Shoot First" is a Cold War suspense film that kept having ask "why did he do that?" as much of the behavior of the leading character, Lt. Colonel Taine (Joel McCrea) made little sense.

The story is set in England. American Lt. Colonel Taine and his wife live there and rent some land where the Colonel likes to hunt. One day, he sees someone on the land and he thinks it's a poacher...so he decides to put some birdshot into the guy and teach him a lesson. However, just as Taine fires, so does a hidden enemy agent...but this shot is from a rifle and it kills the supposed poacher. But Taine thinks he did it and hides the body. Now don't you think in doing this he would have seen a rifle shot?? And, that the shot was on the OTHER side of the man's body?? Well, apparently this Colonel knows little about guns and he just hopes no one finds him.

In the meantime, enemy agents are lurking everywhere around the property. So what do the forces of NATO do? They send one man (Herbert Lom) to look into it. And, when they find spies, instead of calling in troops, he and Taine get caught up in trying to capture them!! Considering the future of the free world hangs in the balance, this does seem like a stupid plan!

As you might have guessed, I did not love this film. In addition to not making much sense, the film also was awfully dull...which is odd for an espionage film.

US Col. Robert Tanie lives with his wife in a cottage in rural England. While hunting on hares, he stumbles on someone he suspects being a poacher or a smuggler. Hoping to scare off the trespasser, he takes a shot at him, and sees the man fall down. Having used non lethal munition, he's very surprised to discover the man's actually dead. What he doesn't know is that the actual killer is a sniper, belonging to a spy ring. Later, he meets Sandorski, a Polish officer (you could describe him as something between Tarfu –see Sabotage agent- and Hercules Poirot). This Sandorski is working together with some British cloak and dagger people, that are keeping a close eye on some suspicious characters, who are also roaming around on the hunting grounds. Sandorski has discovered the presence of strong lights, that are intended to help a plane land in the darkness on these remote surroundings. It soon turns out some shady characters are expecting a mysterious plane with a passenger that clearly doesn't want to use more common ways to travel to the UK. Tanie and the Polish officer manage to change the position of landing lights, and "kidnap" the passenger. It turns out to be a scientist from the Eastern bloc, who wants to meet a communist spy in London.

The novel was by Geoffrey Household, the screenplay by nobody less than Eric Ambler. The action is more important than the psychology of the characters or the dialogs. The movie starts at a somewhat slow pace, but gradually, things are becoming more and more interesting, building up toward a nice climax in Madame Tussaud's. The movie is at times somewhat unnecessarily complex: the presence of a Polish officer with a cavalry sword (!) doesn't add much strength to the storyline. Also, it would have made more sense if Col. Tanie was enjoying retirement with his beautiful wife on the English countryside, so I was surprised to see him use a (US ?) uniform at times, which suggested he was not. And why would spies meet in Madame Tussaud's in stead of in a safe house ?

Still, it's certainly a nice little movie: although no A-stuff, certainly a better than average B-movie. Joel McCrea is alright as the not particularly bright Colonel, and Evelyn Keyes is well cast as his helpful but also curious and somewhat impatient wife. I'd rate it 7.5 to 8/10 However, if you want to see a much better UK spy movie from the same period, try to find High Treason.

Colin McGuigan gets this film exactly right: it's very Hitchcockian, and that is a compliment, but a throwback to Hitch in the 1930s, 10-20 years befoer this one was made in 1953. It's a very well made film, with a good story line and good actors, plus nice on-location shooting, but it looks and feels like it was made in the mid-late 1930s. If you just accept that, you will enjoy this tale of international intrigue. Joel McCrea gives a good, solid and believable performance to anchor the entire film; the villains are also believeably villainous, but not cartoonish; and Herbert Lom brightens up the proceedings whenever he is on screen.

Eric Ambler's scripts more often than not annoyed me by being muddled and artificial. This is no exception, and the first part of the film makes you squirm in uneasy impatience, but then things turn interesting as the plot unfolds. Hitchcock was very careful about always letting the audience know exactly what was happening, that major principle is missing here like in so many Hitchcock-inspired films. Joel McRea is generally reliable, but the real actor here is Herbert Lom as the Polish commandant in the service of MI5, he is wonderful in every scene and lifts the film out of the ditch. The intrigue is interesting, Joel McRea attempts to shoot a hare and hits a man with a buckshot, and the man is dead. No one thinks of the idea that the man could have been shot by someone else at the same time, two shots and two hits from a long distance, which immediately throws the film out of credible realism. There are Germans involved interested in atomic secrets, their leader Marius Goring always haughty and unsympathetic, but Roland Culver as the MI5 man also makes a good impression. Evelyn Keyes is the enjoyable character of the film, and Herbert Lom gives her the proper treatment. There is a great finale which saves the film, but the major asset is actually a great score by Hans May, which gives the right espionage atmosphere to the film, although the real thing is missing.