River Beat

With 'best friend(s)' like these (💎💎💎), a girl doesn't need enemies

When the US luxury freighter "Mohawk Princess" docks in London, its dishy radio operator is unwittingly pulled into a deadly smuggling ring where the masterminds are well insulated, men with hearts as hard as the diamonds they move. Lucky for Judy, crack police investigators "Destiny" Dan and Married Mack are working the river beat, still learning the ropes (witness protection) but in finding clues, rate with Holmes & Watson. Filmed at Docklands and the former Nettlefold Studio in Walton-on-Thames (Surrey), River stars charmed talents in Phyllis Kirk (House of Wax) who's her Jane Wyman look down pat, and B movie sleuth, John Bentley (Temple & Toff), he a cross between Robert Taylor and Monty Clift. Noted cinematographer Guy Green (Great Expectations) (O) makes his directorial debut in this sea noir where the culprits are clever (Pack Ayres), pursuit is engaging and features an Anglo-American romance sure to float your boat. Also stars Leo White (Det McLeod), Harold Ayer, Patrick Jordan, Ewan Roberts as by-the-book Insp Blake, Bill Nagy, Glyn Houston, Margaret Anderson as nervous Nell, Isabel 'Come Hither' George and Jack McNaughton as Hickson, the bungling burglar with "bells" on his toes. A brisk (70m), well-crafted crime drama (Rienits) that keeps you on edge AND pulling for Princess Judy, she not one to sit idly by, even in heels (3.5/4).

Phyllis Kirk is the radio operator on a cargo liner. It's her first time in London, and he's made an interesting acquaintance in handsome police Inspector John Bentley. She's been bringing ashore packs of cigarettes for one of the stewards and passing them off to his friend, thinking that she's helping them save a trifle on import duties. The third time she does so, she's stopped, one of the packets is opened, and it turns out she's been smuggling in diamonds. She says she's innocent, and Bentley is inclined to believe her, but his duty to ask questions gets her angry at him. When the steward turns up dead, Miss Kirk is the only one who can identify the dockside contact. This makes her a target for the unknown big shot.

Guy Green's first movie as director shows what he had learned in two decades in the camera department, including a dozen years as a lighting cameraman. In concert with his cinematographer, Geoffrey Faithfull, he shoots the docklands with a beautiful eye for composition. If there's little that novel in the story, it's a well-wrought mystery that I didn't solve until the answer was shown to me. All in all, a sprightly, if standard B picture.

This film is set in the Port of London just after the coronation.The story revolves around Phylis Kirk being duped into smuggling diamonds.There is a very long chain in this gang from those on board to those on shore.The head of the gang seems to be Charles Looyd Pack.However there is so much in the way of plot that we never actual see whether he is hauled in by the police.We have Kirk chasing Glyn Houston around Dockland as it then was,and then on to the East End.The chase ends in the mud at low tide on the Thames.Looks like the actors were having great fun.Kirk is actually quote good as the arbitrary American lead and the reason for her being on the scene ,is for once quite plausible.This is a very watchable thriller.

A slow moving British crime film set on and around the River Thames. The ubiquitous John Bentley as a river boat patrolman who holds the rank of detective inspector and who is investigating a case of diamond smuggling linked to a large ship docked on the Thames. He becomes involved with a young woman linked to the case and she reluctantly agrees to help him attempt to catch the criminal gang responsible.

While the Thames setting is a quite unique one and makes RIVER BEAT stand out from all the rest of the British crime films of the era, the actual storytelling involved is unremarkable. The running time of RIVER BEAT is just 70 minutes but it feels at least twice that thanks to the sluggish pace and saggy middle where nothing really happens at all. The first part of the film and the climax are mildly exciting but there's a whole lot of time wasting in between.

Bentley is a reliable hero and American import Phyllis Kirk (HOUSE OF WAX) is fine in support. As usual there are plenty of faces lower down in the cast list including Glyn Houston (brother of Donald), Bill Nagy, Michael Balfour, Robert Ayres, and Charles Lloyd Pack. I was surprised that Sam Kydd didn't show up at some point as this would have been a good fit for him.

Oscar-winning cameraman Guy Green turned director with this typical fifties police procedural which justifies its title by beginning and ending with chase sequences vividly shot on the Thames around Tower Bridge.

In between it ambles nonchalantly through various scenes depicting Inspector John Bentley chatting with his sidekick in his office and American visitor Phyllis Kirk constantly inconveniently finding diamonds in her possession when being searched until she and Bentley join forces to clear her name and foil the bad guys in time for the final clinch. The End.