The Black Rider

Riding motorcycles (as they're called here) is one of the bad habits Jimmy Hanley picked up in the army as a dispatch rider at Normandy. Postwar as a member of the Swanhaven Motorcycling Club he tears along the South Coast (attractively shot both by day and by night by veteran cameraman Geoffrey Faithfull) with foxy librarian Rona Anderson on his pillion in the face of initial criticism from her father that they're just "nasty, noisy, clattering bags of machinery" until his path crosses that of 'The Black Monk', played with an Italian accent by veteran voice man Robert Rietty.

SPOILER COMING: As in countless Children's Film Foundation productions and episodes of 'Scooby Doo' the phantom turns out to be a courier for a bunch of smugglers, this time led by Lionel Jeffries (on this occasion the 'MacGuffin' being components for "an atomic sabotage weapon"). All at just 66 minutes and carrying a 'U' certificate; with a jaunty saxophone and guitar score by Wilfred Burns that will stay in your head long after you've forgotten the rest of the film.

'Black Rider' is a low budget B film, which sees the bright and breezy Jimmy Hanley, the 'honest and congenial young man next door type' endeavouring to foil the dastardly, rogue Lionel Jeffries and his henchmen from carrying out atomic sabotage in a sleepy coastal town. The storyline is something out of a boy's comic of that era, with the oily and supercilious moustached villain, Jefferies, always appropriately dressed in a black suit, with our forever smiling and irrepressibly, cheerful Hanley, who is cast as the hero as well as a local reporter. It was one of those cheaply made films that was a time 'filler' to complement the main A film. The film is not to be taken seriously as a crime story, but more of a homage to the importance of British motorcycles of the early 1950's, when buying a car was out of the financial reach of most working class young men, whereas the average young bloke could aspire to becoming liberated by buying a Triumph or Norton motorbike and thus enjoy the freedom which the countryside had to offer. Motor bikes and youth in the 50's would be forever associated with the young American rebel leader, Marlon Brando, terrorising a town with his gang in 'The Wild One.' This film couldn't be further away from rebellious, 'angry young men' as Jimmy Hanley is the very epitome of modesty, honesty and respectability. His 'eager to please' character provides no menace or edge. Indeed. Hanley's jolly character and his very proper and cosy relationship with Rona Anderson, marks him down as a young man every prospective mother would want their daughter to wed. The film itself reveals a forgotten 1950's world of a quintessentially quiet British coastal town, with the pub as its social hub, where local folk were respectful, warm hearted, and where violence, crudity and sexual innuendos were conspicuous by their absence!

I only recently found out about this movie thanks to ITV screening it. As it was on during the early hours, I set the video to record it and was pleased I did.

A group of smugglers are 'haunting' a castle, which happens to be haunted anyway by a monk. One of the smugglers poses as this monk and frightens some of the locals. A reporter and his girlfriend decide to investigate this and discover these smugglers are importing parts to build an atomic bomb which could course great loss of life and destruction over a large area. They get arrested at the end.

This movie also gives you an idea on what life was like during the 1950's including a village fete which were popular at the time and still are today.

The nuclear jitters of the time probably spawned the movie, which was made at the height of the Atomic Age.

As well as Jimmy Hanley, it also stars Lionel Jefferies (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and Carry On star Kenneth Conner. All play good parts. The movie has a great theme and score too.

This movie is worth watching if you get the chance as it is rather hold to get hold of.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Jimmy Hanley is a young (?) reporter on the local paper, a motorcycling enthusiast, and in love with his publisher/editor's daughter, Rona Anderson. When strange doings are reported at the ruined castle, raising old myths of a "Black Rider" used in old days to cover smuggling, it becomes clear that someone is smuggling something. But what?

It's an enjoyable little newspaper thriller, even if 35-year-old Mr. Hanley is getting a little old to play a youngster any more. It's not an expensive movie, but old-time cameraman Geoffrey Faithfull shoots the scenes efficiently, and the professional cast, including Leslie Dwyer and Lionel Jeffries certainly earn their paychecks under the direction of Wolf Rilla.

I like Director Wolf Rilla very much. German-born but raised in the UK, he has a different touch even as he abides by British stiff upper lip humor within the limits of Butcher studio's shoestring. That said, I am not British but British B pics of the 1950s and 1960s are the equal of just about any A pic anywhere in the world.

Rona Anderson constitutes an immediate plus: she has to be one of the most stunningly beautiful and elegant women ever! Hanley's comic touch helps convince one that this physically not particularly attractive male can snare such a bombastic beauty and from that point on we see how a band of rascals on motorbikes is taken down Famous Five style by Brocken Castle.

Great fluffy fun!