Forbidden Cargo

Nigel Patrick is a customs man who gets wind of a major smuggling operation. Soon, they'll be bringing in 30 pounds of heroin.The pursuit takes him from quiet London flats, to yachts anchored off Cannes.

It's a fine movie, lavishly produced by Sidney Box, with a strong set of actors, including Jack Warner, Elizabeth Sellars, Greta Grynt, Theodore. Bikel, and Joyce Grenfell in an amusingly toothy, eccentric role.

There's little here that hasn't been done before, but a good script, a good director, Good performers and good camerawork.... what more do you need?

This movie is kind of fun. If you imagined that working from Customs was boring and uninteresting, this will change your mind. Kenyon the Customs inspector travels to the South of France, consorts with beautiful women, stays in luxury motels, and generally lives a very high life.

It's not a bad story about a brother and sister drug smuggling ring that is busted open my modest men from Customs in tweed jackets and narrow ties.

This is an entertaining smuggling yarn with an excellent cast.Nigel Patrick is good in the lead role ably supported by Jack Warner,then at the height of his Dixon of Dock Green fame.The chief villain is Terence Morgan assisted by American,Theodore Bikel.Even smaller roles are well cast.The inimitable plays the aristocratic birdwatching,and is hilarious as usual.Eric Pohlman is a gang member who wants to spill the beans to get a shorter sentence.There is a lot of cars dashing around dark London streets.Strangely the package of drugs is supposed to be at Victoria Station but it is clearly Waterloo.Shame that this film now seems to be virtually forgotten.

Nigel Patrick ("Kenyon") works quite well here as a customs and excise inspector who is on the trail of a glamorous brother and sister (Elizabeth Sellars & Terence Morgan) whom he and boss Jack Warner suspect might be involved in a big drug smuggling enterprise. As the plot thickens, he begins to fall a little for the femme fatale and things all get rather too complicated. It features a fun contribution from Joyce Grenfell as the slightly eccentric tweeter (birds) "Lady Flavia' and keep an eye out for a fleeting visit by Michael Hordern. The writing is a bit bland however, and the investigative sides of the story a bit procedural - but the performances are decent enough and the photography helps the drama along well. Worth a watch.

I watched this on the talking pictures channel as there was nothing of quality elsewhere, and was I in for a very watchable treat. It had a sterling cast ranging from Joyce Grenfell as a scatty upper class birdwatcher through to Nigel Patrick as a dogged customs detective prepares to risk his life to get the smugglers. If you grew up with quality such as this, you'll find the modern "movies", dull and predictable by comparison. I gave it a 10.