Stolen Assignment

Filmed at Bray Studios by Terence Fisher, but not according to the credits a Hammer Production (although several crew members from other Hammer productions appear in those credits) and played only semi-seriously with a whimsical music score, as strapping blonde Hy Hazel in a succession of elegant suits runs amuck as an aspiring girl reporter while Charles Farrell overacts seismically as the newspaper editor whose eye she's determined to catch.

Stolen assignment is yet another light-hearted crime/ thriller in which a couple of newspaper reporters compete with each other to expose a murderer, and the police seem unable to do without their 'help'. A time honored theme that holds up extremely well in this ~hour long romp.

The best laid plans of our villain are dismembered one by one by our intrepid pair in a movie that is genuinely absorbing. The comedic aspects never seem to interfere with the unfolding drama and when the climax is reached the pair realize, unsurprisingly, that it must be love - for a happy ending.

The acting is top notch and the characters are well fleshed out.

For anyone with a modicum of interest in movies of a bygone era, this is essential viewing. Four and a half, from five stars is my assessment. A Gem.

This is a strictly routine thriller which leaves no cliché unturned.Hy Hazell and John Bentley play reporters on the same newspaper who are rivals for scoops on the murder investigation.Eddie Byrne is the detective who is pestered by the duo and tries to thwart their best efforts,There are a number of red herrings thrown in to put you off the scent.It is though all rather ruotine.One can only be grateful that the leads are not played by the usual American has beens.Hy Hazells only real claim to fame is her rather dramatic death,choking to death on a steak in a restaurant.Probably for devotees of the genre or the actors only.

I voted this 1954 "B" film a user rating of 5/10 - just about average.The leading parts were very small fry actors in the film business (producer budget constraints) but were adequate.Eddie Byrne as the police inspector was probably the best known character actor and had a joint leading role.I also recognised the actor who played the newspaper's crime reporter who played the English master in the 1951 comedy film "The Happiest Days of your Life".In the latter film (like "Stolen Assignment") he has a romantic liaison with his female opposite number (Bernadette O'Farrell) in the girls school (headmistress Margaret Rutherford) which the Ministry of Education have stupidly assigned to the same location & school as the boys public school whose head is Alastair Sim.

In "Stolen Assignment" Hy Hazel plays the female reporter wishing to better herself by reporting on meatier subjects than the frivolous female subjects to which the editor of her paper keeps assigning her.One character actor who caught my eye was Raymond Rollet who played a police sergeant.In the 1950s on BBC TV Children's Hour Raymond played a character called "Mr Sly" and a church deacon in "Gone to Earth" (1949).Eddie Byrne is assisted by the newspaper duo in solving the case of the murdered artist's affluent wife who had kept the artist when she was alive.The question is can they come up with the hard evidence the police require to enable them to make an arrest rather than mere supposition?

This was the sort of "B" picture you saw in British cinemas in the 1950s before the big feature you had gone primarily to see.