Terror Street

Dan Duryea stars in "Terror Street," also known as "36 Hours" from 1953. Though this was filmed in Britain and takes place there, the cars had the steering wheel on the American side for some reason.

Duryea is Bill Rogers, an American soldier, returns to London, where he was once stationed, when he hasn't heard from his Norwegian wife Katherine (Elsy Albin) in some time. He arrives at their apartment to find her gone and letters he sent to her unread. Her neighbor finally admits that Katherine is now living in an apartment in the west end.

Rogers convinces the young man at reception to let him into the apartment - mainly because he says if not, he will report that the employee is listening in on private phone calls.

Turns out the apartment is one fancy place, but before learning how it is that Katherine has moved up in the world, Rogers is knocked unconscious. When he regains consciousness, he finds that Katherine is dead, his service pistol was used, and it is in his hand.

Rogers' plane to return to the U. S. is in 36 hours - so he has that long to find out who killed Katherine. On the run from the police, he encounters a soup kitchen worker (Ann Gudrun) who believes his story and endeavors to help him.

Duryea is very good, as is the rest of the cast, including Eric Pohlmann and John Chandos.

The problem with the film is that the writing is weak. First of all, why the soup kitchen worker, whom he surprises after he sneaks into her apartment, didn't run for her life is beyond me. Also, Rogers doesn't turn to the police; he decides to investigate for himself in the typical innocent albeit wanted man way. There is also no big surprise as to who killed Katherine.

Katherine's story turns out to be somewhat interesting, however, and because I like Duryea, I'm giving it six stars.

Terror Street (AKA: 36 Hours) is directed by Montgomery Tully and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Dan Duryea, Elsy Albiin, Ann Gudrun, John Chandos and Eric Pohlmann. Music is by Ivor Slaney and cinematography by Walter Harvey. Plot finds Duryea as Major William Rogers, who is in London to see his estranged wife. When he arrives at her apartment, he is attacked and knocked unconscious. Upon awakening he finds that his wife has been shot and killed with his own gun. Taking to the streets, Rogers must find the real culprits before the police find and charge him with the murder.

Simple and effective little B crime picture out of Hammer Productions that plays on the wrong man on the run theme. There's the odd little film noir touch here and there on the production side of things (night time wet cobbled streets/Duryea under a street lamp/finale in swinging shadow), which somehow warrants it being part of the Hammer Film Noir Collection, but really it's best to approach this one as purely a race against time drama that is competently acted (though the script rarely allows Duryea chance to brood and be emotionally battered), well paced and a film that retains a good mystery element throughout. Safe viewing and film making really. 6/10

There's no mystery in Terror Street since we know right away who murders Dan Duryea's wife Elsie Albiin. But the film is a neat little noir thriller from the United Kingdom and released here under the banner of Lippert Pictures.

As was a common practice in Great Britain of the Fifties an American name was obtained to star and was supported by players from there and the continent. Duryea plays an American Air Force major who goes AWOL and has a friend smuggle him to Great Britain. He had been stationed there and then temporarily transferred stateside as a flight instructor. That did not please Albiin as she's left behind.

As we learn in flashback she got herself a fancy new apartment in an upscale part of London. And Albiin starts hanging around with a real shady crowd consisting of Erich Pohlmann, John Chandos, and Kenneth Griffith. We also learn she's become a come on in a blackmail scheme and wants out.

We learn this at the same time Duryea does, but he rather stupidly polishes off a bottle of liquor while he waits for Albiin and one of the cast murders her. And as usual he's the one holding the bag.

It's always fascinating in these kind of films how these men on the run always get some woman to help them. In this case it's Gudrun Ure, a nursing sister whom he breaks in on while the London cops are chasing him.

Terror Street is a nice no frills noir film. No suspense since we know who did the deed, but the tension is good and the cast performs well.

The basic idea for "36 Hours" is decent....and it could have been a really good British film noir movie. However, it suffers from a huge problem...the reliance on a bad and often overused cliche...the total stranger who helps a wanted man. Hitchcock used it in "The 39 Steps" but so have many other film makers....which is why I wasn't overly impressed by the movie.

Bill Rogers (Dan Duryea) is in the US Air Force and he's on a 36 hour layover in London. He takes this time to go home to see his wife...only to find the apartment empty. After investigating, he finds her in her new apartment...and it appears as if she's been up to no good while Bill was away. But before he can get any answers, he's hit from behind. When he awakens, he finds her dead next to him....shot with his gun!! Seeing he's behind the 8-ball, Bill decides that instead of going to the police, he'll investigate on his own. Now this in and of itself is an overused cliche...but it gets worse when he meets a young lady who, inexplicably, instantly believes him and takes MANY risks to help Bill....none of which makes any sense! It's a shame, as the main plot idea is sound...but what follows isn't.

Duryea is sound in the lead but even a decent performance by him cannot erase cliched writing....and it is cliched (as I mentioned above) and should have been better. In spite of this, the film still is interesting and worth seeing....but nothing more.

I did remember in some bonus material that Dan Duryea was totally opposite as Hollywood stigmatized him in his countless crook's roles, in fact he complained it largely for his pals, now on this American-British co-production he had finally his good guy's moments, maybe it was the mistake, the picture has innumerable qualities, dark, intense, a true noir and having London's fog atmosphere, like "do you want a cup of tea??" reading some reviews posted here which l'd to disagree with them, meanwhile l've respect all comments, but my vision of cinema was and ever will be by myself, watching a little portion may occur in a bug, maybe watching twice should be a best baseline, it's already happened with me many times, notwithstanding redressed each issue in its turn, the DVD experience is quite different from TV, in this last one we always lost many unnoticed details and cannot turn back at once!!!

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First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7