When young reporter and amateur biker Jerry Marsh investigates a mysterious hooded figure on a motorbike, he discovers crooks hiding out in a ruined castle with atomic sabotage on their mind... Read allWhen young reporter and amateur biker Jerry Marsh investigates a mysterious hooded figure on a motorbike, he discovers crooks hiding out in a ruined castle with atomic sabotage on their minds...When young reporter and amateur biker Jerry Marsh investigates a mysterious hooded figure on a motorbike, he discovers crooks hiding out in a ruined castle with atomic sabotage on their minds...
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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.
Jerry (Hanley) is a reporter who rides a motorbike despite the disapproval of his parents - the fact that he seems rather elderly is neither here nor there! There's a girlfriend, a local legend of a ghost, and a nice comic turn from a young Kenneth Connor.
The local rich chappie and maybe villain of the piece is Lionel Jeffries, in a reliable performance. Hanley himself is adequate but perhaps an actor like Albert Finney would have been so much more interesting as Jerry. However, 'The Black Rider' is a good wheeze and a decent little B movie.
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!
There's a grand line of British movies involving smugglers/gun runners that use some supernatural legend to hide their crooked activities. Think The Ghost Train and Will Hay classics like Oh! Mr Porter and Ask A Policenman, and you find it's a splinter of the horror comedy that has been well served in Blighty. The Black Rider carried on this tradition but only with a modicum of success.
Out of Nettlefold Studios, it's by definition a quintessential B movie. It clocks in at just over an hour, is low on production value but oozes the cheap and cheery ambiance that makes it impossible to dislike. Plot basically follows the concept of a small coastal town in awe of a local spook said to haunt the ruins up there on the hill. Cue sightings of said spook (a hooded monk), an investigation of Famous Five type proportions by some straight backed heroes, a snapshot of ye olde Brit village life and low and behold there's some crooks to be snuffed out for a big hooray ending! Throw in a bunch of motorcycle riders and their awesome bikes, though this is no Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and it rounds out as a brisk and amiable time waster; with Rilla showing nice fluid camera work that often belies the low budget afforded the production.
Safe as houses really, or in this case, Brockham Manor! 6/10
Did you know
- TriviaJerry writes for the "Swanhaven News and Mail", run by Robert Plack.
- GoofsJerry argues with Mary's dad in the living room which he then exits through a door to the hallway, but in the next frame he re-enters the living room with Mary from the door to the garden.
- Quotes
Mary Plack: [When her son rides off with Plack's daughter on his new motorcycle] We shall never see them alive again. They'll be brought home in an ambulance.
Robert Plack: Well, they needn't expect to see me at the funeral!
- ConnectionsFeatured in Truly, Madly, Cheaply!: British B Movies (2008)
Details
- Runtime
- 1h 5m(65 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1