River Beat

This movie has a pretty good crime/detective plot that makes it worth watching even though there are times when it moves pretty slowly. Most of the production is unspectacular, but good enough to sustain the story.

Dan Barker is a police inspector working the "River Beat" in London, watching for smugglers. He becomes attracted to a woman (played by Phyllis Kirk) who then turns up in possession of some smuggled diamonds, and Barker must decide whether she is guilty or not. After the plot gets set up like this, things start to move slowly for much of the middle of the movie. But the ending is good - there is at least one worthwhile surprise, and some reasonably good action.

It's mostly an average B-film, without any major flaws, and probably worth watching for the story if you enjoy crime/detective features.

So-so quota quickie. typical of its type, whose plot has been well covered in other reviews, so just a few things to add. Great location work around docklands, and nearby parts of 50s London, and I didn't think it paced itself too badly. On the down side, though the plot itself is reasonably coherent, there's plenty that doesn't quite ring true, in line with films of the genre. There's the villain with his much younger moll, whom he appears to treat as a slave, so that he never has to leave his seat - she even holds the phone for him while talks into it. There's the Mr Big, who, as soon as he pulls out a gun, you just know he's going to the world's worst shot, and will bungle his advantage. There's the final, frantic ten minutes, in which there will be a chase and a fist fight, the hero will when and then....well you know what's next, There seemed to a law for such films that there has be an implausible whirlwind romance between the two lead characters. and, when these two meet by chance for the first time in a bar, you know that they will declare their love for each other about half an hour later (okay, maybe two days later, but having spent no more than about half an hour together during those two days.). Perhaps that's what the viewing public wanted in those days, I just want to be surprised one day by a film like this in which the cops get the baddies despite the two leads not being able to stand the sight of each other. Anyway, it's a watchable hour, if only for the look of it.

This film is set in the Port of London just after the coronation.The story revolves around Phylis Kirk being duped into smuggling diamonds.There is a very long chain in this gang from those on board to those on shore.The head of the gang seems to be Charles Looyd Pack.However there is so much in the way of plot that we never actual see whether he is hauled in by the police.We have Kirk chasing Glyn Houston around Dockland as it then was,and then on to the East End.The chase ends in the mud at low tide on the Thames.Looks like the actors were having great fun.Kirk is actually quote good as the arbitrary American lead and the reason for her being on the scene ,is for once quite plausible.This is a very watchable thriller.

With 'best friend(s)' like these (💎💎💎), a girl doesn't need enemies

When the US luxury freighter "Mohawk Princess" docks in London, its dishy radio operator is unwittingly pulled into a deadly smuggling ring where the masterminds are well insulated, men with hearts as hard as the diamonds they move. Lucky for Judy, crack police investigators "Destiny" Dan and Married Mack are working the river beat, still learning the ropes (witness protection) but in finding clues, rate with Holmes & Watson. Filmed at Docklands and the former Nettlefold Studio in Walton-on-Thames (Surrey), River stars charmed talents in Phyllis Kirk (House of Wax) who's her Jane Wyman look down pat, and B movie sleuth, John Bentley (Temple & Toff), he a cross between Robert Taylor and Monty Clift. Noted cinematographer Guy Green (Great Expectations) (O) makes his directorial debut in this sea noir where the culprits are clever (Pack Ayres), pursuit is engaging and features an Anglo-American romance sure to float your boat. Also stars Leo White (Det McLeod), Harold Ayer, Patrick Jordan, Ewan Roberts as by-the-book Insp Blake, Bill Nagy, Glyn Houston, Margaret Anderson as nervous Nell, Isabel 'Come Hither' George and Jack McNaughton as Hickson, the bungling burglar with "bells" on his toes. A brisk (70m), well-crafted crime drama (Rienits) that keeps you on edge AND pulling for Princess Judy, she not one to sit idly by, even in heels (3.5/4).

Phyllis Kirk is the radio operator on a cargo liner. It's her first time in London, and he's made an interesting acquaintance in handsome police Inspector John Bentley. She's been bringing ashore packs of cigarettes for one of the stewards and passing them off to his friend, thinking that she's helping them save a trifle on import duties. The third time she does so, she's stopped, one of the packets is opened, and it turns out she's been smuggling in diamonds. She says she's innocent, and Bentley is inclined to believe her, but his duty to ask questions gets her angry at him. When the steward turns up dead, Miss Kirk is the only one who can identify the dockside contact. This makes her a target for the unknown big shot.

Guy Green's first movie as director shows what he had learned in two decades in the camera department, including a dozen years as a lighting cameraman. In concert with his cinematographer, Geoffrey Faithfull, he shoots the docklands with a beautiful eye for composition. If there's little that novel in the story, it's a well-wrought mystery that I didn't solve until the answer was shown to me. All in all, a sprightly, if standard B picture.