The Black Rider

This is actually quite a fun story that is rather let down by a really mediocre cast. "Jerry Marsh" (Jimmy Hanley) is a local journalist with a penchant for motor bikes. When, one night, he spots a mysterious rider near the beach, he is intrigued and together with Rona Anderson ("Mary") and his editor "Robert Plack" (Leslie Dwyer) they are drawn into a criminal conspiracy with a gang led by a really not very menacing at all Lionel Jeffries! It's only an hour, and it passes that amicably enough - but the cast and the writing are all pretty unremarkable...........................................

'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.

Jimmy Hanley is a young (?) reporter on the local paper, a motorcycling enthusiast, and in love with his publisher/editor's daughter, Rona Anderson. When strange doings are reported at the ruined castle, raising old myths of a "Black Rider" used in old days to cover smuggling, it becomes clear that someone is smuggling something. But what?

It's an enjoyable little newspaper thriller, even if 35-year-old Mr. Hanley is getting a little old to play a youngster any more. It's not an expensive movie, but old-time cameraman Geoffrey Faithfull shoots the scenes efficiently, and the professional cast, including Leslie Dwyer and Lionel Jeffries certainly earn their paychecks under the direction of Wolf Rilla.

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.