Dick Barton, Detective

Based on the classic British Radio series this clunker of a movie is a series of bad choices (which they corrected for the next two movies), and one of the worst films Hammer Studios ever produced.

The plot of this film has to do with smuggling and Nazi spies in and around a small English Village. The villain is a German agent posing, as a Swedish scientist, complete with German accent. He has secret tunnels and hideouts in the village and is plotting great evil. He is aided by various people in the village all of whom are suspicious looking in the extreme. Good guy Dick Barton is sent to the town by his bosses, under cover of taking a vacation, to the village to find out whats going on.

This movie is bad, really bad. The film was aimed at kids and they dumb the whole movie down with over the top performances and really bad humor. Frankly this is more a misfiring comedy rather than the exciting action adventure of the radio. The direction is at best stiff with the actors not so much directed as arranged in tableaux, upon which the camera locks. It reminded me of a movie from the advent of the movies.

I'm dumb founded at this films awfulness.

I've given the movie a 2 instead of a 1 because there a few fleeting moments where the movie actually works, but they are high points in a very low movie and nothing you need concern yourself with. It would probably be best if you just skipped this movie and watched either of the other two Dick Barton films that followed.

It's three years since the War ended, but Evil Nazi Arthur Bush isn't going to let that stop him from his plans to poison London's water supply. Good thing that Dick Barton: Special Agent is on the job, including his usual cohort. And that Bush's henchmen are utterly incompetent. Any decent Nazi would have shot them.

The first of three Dick Barton movies starring Don Stannard looks to have been from a late wartime serial, with director Alf Goulding eking out the story with several gags that are punk, and some fight sequences that look utterly unconvincing. If it weren't for the use of Charles Williams' 'Devil's Galop' -- which I recognized from its use in the Spanish Inquisition sketch from Monty Python -- it would be an utter waste of time. The performers do their best, but the the script was poor Boy's Entertainment from the BBC on the radio, and the sets and costumes make it look worse. It must have been very cheap to produce, because plans for a fourth movie were cancelled when Stannard was killed in a car accident.

ALMOST INSUFFERABLE...JUVENILE COMEDY-ADVENTURE...FROM POPULAR BRITISH RADIO

Very Early Hammer Cheapie when the Newly-Born Studio was Floundering About in a Number of Genres.

In this one Hammer Dumbs-Down Popular Radio Hero Barton to a Comedy-Adventure with Copious Amounts of Slapstick and Bad Mugging.

Certainly Made for a Juvenile Audience.

It's Lively, if Nothing Else, and Manages a Fast-Pace both in Montage and Dialog.

This Type of Speedy Line-Delivery is Reminiscent of Screw-Ball Comedies from Hollywood.

They also Borrow the Style and Tone of the Serials.

Most of the Action is Fisticuffs with a Couple of Car Romps and Bit on the Sea.

The Studio Saw the Error of Their Ways and the Sequels are Much Better.

Not Much to Offer Except Nostalgia for those that Lived Through the Early Years of the Brit. Hero.

Most of those Fans will be Disappointed with this Entry but can Look Forward to Better Movies Ahead.

The maiden episode of a short-lived trio of Dick Barton movies made by Hammer is a jaunty period piece from the days when the dastardly villains were still nazis rather than commies.

It's amateurish technique, period detail and use of actual locations today gains it considerable interest viewed purely as a documentary.

In preparation for the "House of Hammer" podcast, which is covering the complete "Dick Barton" trilogy that Hammer produced in the late 1940's. Slightly confusingly for me, I watched "Dick Barton: Strikes Back" first, not believing that this was available, but then finding a copy on YouTube. Having enjoyed the sequel, I found this disappointing.

With his friends as cover, Dick Barton (Don Stannard) heads to the small coastal town of Echo Bay and disrupts a smuggling ring there. Though seemingly small fry for a Detective of Barton's renown, the smugglers have a link to a foreign scientist, going by the name of Dr Casper (Geoffrey Wincott) whose scheme is more malevolent than merely importing contraband.

Despite only being made a year later, "Dick Barton Strikes Back" is a much more accomplished film, in virtually every regard. Here, at least on the version I saw, the editing is a lot less capable. The fight scenes are hilariously amateurish but most strikingly the performances are terrible. Even Don Stannard isn't as comfortable as he is next time out. Farnham Baxter's character Roscoe is a very unusual creation. I don't know what accent he's doing but to describe is as odd is an understatement. The foley work is poor, and some of the dialogue crudely pasted into certain scenes.

You have the early use of the trope of a villain who doesn't just kill the hero, when he has him dead to rights, instead choosing to trap him and assume that his elaborate scheme will work. It's a proud tradition started in the serials and continuing right through to the Batman TV show.

Nothing like as accomplished as it's sequel.