The Black Rider

'Black Rider' is a low budget B film, which sees the bright and breezy Jimmy Hanley, the 'honest and congenial young man next door type' endeavouring to foil the dastardly, rogue Lionel Jeffries and his henchmen from carrying out atomic sabotage in a sleepy coastal town. The storyline is something out of a boy's comic of that era, with the oily and supercilious moustached villain, Jefferies, always appropriately dressed in a black suit, with our forever smiling and irrepressibly, cheerful Hanley, who is cast as the hero as well as a local reporter. It was one of those cheaply made films that was a time 'filler' to complement the main A film. The film is not to be taken seriously as a crime story, but more of a homage to the importance of British motorcycles of the early 1950's, when buying a car was out of the financial reach of most working class young men, whereas the average young bloke could aspire to becoming liberated by buying a Triumph or Norton motorbike and thus enjoy the freedom which the countryside had to offer. Motor bikes and youth in the 50's would be forever associated with the young American rebel leader, Marlon Brando, terrorising a town with his gang in 'The Wild One.' This film couldn't be further away from rebellious, 'angry young men' as Jimmy Hanley is the very epitome of modesty, honesty and respectability. His 'eager to please' character provides no menace or edge. Indeed. Hanley's jolly character and his very proper and cosy relationship with Rona Anderson, marks him down as a young man every prospective mother would want their daughter to wed. The film itself reveals a forgotten 1950's world of a quintessentially quiet British coastal town, with the pub as its social hub, where local folk were respectful, warm hearted, and where violence, crudity and sexual innuendos were conspicuous by their absence!

This sturdy British B-picture features a plot right out of Enid Blyton or Scooby-Doo. A gang of crooks, bent on smuggling "atomic sabotage equipment" into the country (crumbs!), are using the legend of the Black Rider to scare people away from crumbling Brocken Castle, where they have a secret headquarters in the dungeons. Gosh!

The film is best enjoyed for its view of the vanished innocence of 50s Britain. This is a place where smiling librarians select handpicked novels for little old ladies, where the teapot is always full, where the harmless village drunk (Kenneth Connor) is plied with booze by indulgent locals and where the local youths are too busy fixing their motorbikes to bother with vandalising the bus shelter. No Hells Angels these - they are all clean-cut and impeccably polite, trundling along the leafy lanes at a sedate 25 mph or participating in motorised egg-and-spoon races at the village fete.

Jimmy Hanley and Rona Anderson make a charming hero and heroine, Lionel Jeffries is good as the urbane villain and there' s a jolly, infuriatingly catchy theme tune. Nobody gets killed and even Hanley's irascible employer and future father-in-law turns out to be a decent cove at the end, even buying his own motorcycle and sidecar combination for some exhilarating spins with the missus. Somehow I doubt if Quentin Tarantino will be doing a remake.

I only recently found out about this movie thanks to ITV screening it. As it was on during the early hours, I set the video to record it and was pleased I did.

A group of smugglers are 'haunting' a castle, which happens to be haunted anyway by a monk. One of the smugglers poses as this monk and frightens some of the locals. A reporter and his girlfriend decide to investigate this and discover these smugglers are importing parts to build an atomic bomb which could course great loss of life and destruction over a large area. They get arrested at the end.

This movie also gives you an idea on what life was like during the 1950's including a village fete which were popular at the time and still are today.

The nuclear jitters of the time probably spawned the movie, which was made at the height of the Atomic Age.

As well as Jimmy Hanley, it also stars Lionel Jefferies (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and Carry On star Kenneth Conner. All play good parts. The movie has a great theme and score too.

This movie is worth watching if you get the chance as it is rather hold to get hold of.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

I like Director Wolf Rilla very much. German-born but raised in the UK, he has a different touch even as he abides by British stiff upper lip humor within the limits of Butcher studio's shoestring. That said, I am not British but British B pics of the 1950s and 1960s are the equal of just about any A pic anywhere in the world.

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!

If you remove the thought that Jimmy Hanley is the British Marlon Brando in this biker movie made around the same time as the classic 'The Wild One', then you might enjoy this laid-back tale of smugglers, deceit, dads, and dark pubs.

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.