Blonde Bait

I saw her in Wicked Woman (1953) on youtube, some has dubbed this from VHS , for our viewing pleasure, I know this because the tracking at the bottom needs a bit of ajustment, but that's neither here nor there, what is important are these wonderful thespians and gems from the era...

I was a bit flummoxed for at some point this took a strange turn and sort of jumbled up everything sort of willy-nilly you see, and I ceased to be able to distinguish from regular dames and bad dames and good guys and bad guys since everything sort of took a big leap in the sophistic episodes of "Three's Company" see where everything sort of gets mixed up , but like the episode everything ambiguous became clear and resplendent and once again order out of chaos was of course restored! Huzza, huzza! lol,

But yes, this dame is cool, this dame really knows how to pose for the screen, I think most of the thespians especially the female actresses really knew about lighting as they were poised to pose for the camera, terrific!

A really fun film, a good show, a good show! Seeing Beverly run away into the night with roman candles exploding everywhere behind her made the flic for me, how about you?

Yes the late Thora Hird could be a comedienne in roles such as this playing Granny Rafferty, opposite American Beverley Michaels who plays her fellow inmate in a women's prison.Previous reviewers have outlined the plot of a tale of post WWII & the Cold War where both Scotland Yard and the U.S. State Dept mount a joint venture to entrap a traitor/murderer played by Jim Davis (most known in this country for playing JR's father in early episodes of "Dallas").The reference to "Lindberg" in the screenplay I assumed referred to aviator Charles Lindberg when the three escaped women prisoners and baby use an old MG to make their getaway, with Thora joking at the wheel.They make their getaway with the connivance of UK/US authorities before the denouement when Beverley finally realises the rotten relationship she had with the Jim Davis character.Yes I rated it 7/10 and was entertained on this, my first ever viewing.

Another Hammer movie watched to go with the "House of Hammer" Podcast and after a few welcome weeks of otherworldly horror, we're back with a noiry crime thriller. I usually write my reviews a few days after watching the film, so as an aide memoire I usually make a couple of little notes. Here I've just written down one word, in big letters, "BORING".

Angie Booth (Beverly Michaels) a lounge room singer of some renown, plans to marry her shady boyfriend Nick (Paul Carpenter) on New Years Eve. With Nick out of the country, Angie is imprisoned for an assault on her murderous club promotor and will miss the arranged date. However, the British and American authorities are aware of the planned nuptials and, using an informant, 'Granny' (Thora Hird), try to organise a Prison break, so Angie can lead them to Nick.

Despite not one, but two, salacious titles, the version of this film I saw on Youtube was catastrophically dull. There appears to be two very different versions of the film, with "Blonde Bait" recasting Nick and adding new actors and scenes, I think I was watching the original though.

The women's prison seems remarkably clean and organised and there's not much antagonism going on between the staff and convicts. Some of the other prisoners have an impact on the story. Marguerite, played by April Olrich, has had a baby that will be taken from her and put up for adoption soon, as the rules of prison dictate and so joins the escape and bigamist Babs (Sheila Burrell) who has married twice and is released before the escape takes place. There are a couple of recognisable actors in this, recognisable to me anyway. One is Thora Hird, who is playing a character called Granny in 1956, it's almost incomprehensible that she'd still be playing elderly characters on TV fifty years later, she's great though. Gordon Jackson is also in the film too.

What should be an interesting thriller, about a state mandated prison escape leading to the capture of a wanted felon gets hopelessly lost in the mundanity of the second act, so much so that I can't even recall the specifics of if they catch Nick at the end. It's not surprising that a new ending was created for "Blonde Bait" as this one is very underwhelming.

This feels like a step backwards for Hammer, after the horror successes of the last couple of films and I'm glad it doesn't appear to last too long.

Angela Booth is a singer and performing to crowds in London. However, she is attacked by Julius Lord and to protect herself from this lecherous old goat, she hits him with her mirror. He is well- connected and this American girl is sent to a women's prison...despite being entirely innocent of everything except trying to keep herself from being molested! However, the State Department in the US is interested in her. It's not that she's done anything wrong...but her boyfriend, Randall, is scum...a traitor who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII and they want him! But she won't willingly help, so they arrange for her to be able to escape from prison in order to follow her to a meeting with Randall...or so they hope. This summary is not exactly the same as the one on IMDb, as it is not quite correct.

This is an adequate movie...nothing bad but nothing great about it either. It is the epitome of the term 'time-passer' and the finale is less than well handled--it's over and done with way too quickly.

In their quest to nab a spy for the Soviet Bloc named "Nick Randall" (Jim Davis), the American State Department decides to follow his girlfriend, "Angela Booth" (Beverly Michaels) to a secret rendezvous the two had planned a few months earlier. The only problem is that Angela is sent to prison in England for a crime she wasn't guilty of. Not wanting to tip their hand, the Americans and British resort to desperate measures to make sure that Angela keeps her appointment with Nick at any costs. At any rate, rather than spoil the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this is a decent enough B-Movie from the mid-50's which might appeal to those who enjoy action-dramas of this nature. I would also like to add that this film is not nearly as risqué as the movie poster printed during this time might lead a person to believe. Again, one has to consider the time period in which it was made. That said, I rate it as average, all things considered.