A rogue smuggler enters the world of intrigue and deception, when he finds that his wife has been kidnapped his world changes.A rogue smuggler enters the world of intrigue and deception, when he finds that his wife has been kidnapped his world changes.A rogue smuggler enters the world of intrigue and deception, when he finds that his wife has been kidnapped his world changes.
- Doris Squire
- (as Shirley Deane)
- Birdwatcher
- (scenes deleted)
Featured reviews
Although she is third billed, Miss Blackman gets a lot of starlet build-up in this cheap movie, showing off her figure in in a one-piece bathing suit, and her athleticism just as the plot goes silly. There's a couple of unlikely bouts of fisticuffs and a shoot-out, and director Maclean Rogers avoids long takes and dialogue scenes with more than one person in a shot. It shows itself to be a cheap B movie throughout, but there is some nice chemistry between McDermott and Miss Blackman in the opening sequences.
Honor Blackman is the best thing about this movie, but she is burdened with those frumpy 50s middle-class clothes. "Doris from the office" dresses completely differently - and far more attractively.
Others have dissed the fight scenes - looks like they couldn't afford a fight director and the cast just improvised. The result is the fights look unusually realistic. McDeremott and Blackman also clamber ungracefully over a wall - no clever cutting making it look easy.
Yes the underworld character struggles to conceal his public-school origins, and the owner of a small house-boat attempts to persuade us that he is Scottish, for no good reason.
Much of the action takes place in stuffy interiors crammed with repro tat. And then I fell asleep.
There's some mild intrigue in this film, and a few characters who double-cross each other, but for the most part it's very dull and it lacks the lively charm of other productions like SMOKESCREEN or IMPACT. Hugh McDermott was a poor choice for the film's hero; his American accent is awful and he seems uninterested in the proceedings.
In a bid to spice things up there are a couple of fight scenes thrown into the mix but they have more in common with a bar-room brawl in the Wild West than a genteel British thriller. Watch out for the lovely Honor Blackman who is given little to do as the kidnapped wife.
Did you know
- TriviaFirst movie of British model Shirley Deane.
- GoofsBob tricks his way into getting the master key without the hall-porter knowing, but it was never shown how he returns it to where he took it from.
- Quotes
Bob Westlake: And in one of the two cases are these 'Prophecies of Achmed'?
Dr. Burger: We believe so. And possibly Mr Mordaunt was not even aware of the fact. But I can assure you they are highly dangerous
Bob Westlake: What are they exactly?
Dr. Burger: Achmed the Elder was a great eastern seer and prophet in the early part of the fourteenth century. There is a belief that in his work, he foretold the fate of the entire Arab world and its eventual triumph over the infidel
Bob Westlake: I see
Dr. Burger: In recent years, a new Achmed cult has appeared. Their leader, Hejez Delal, is a skilled agitator and with the aid of those original works he could well set the whole of the Middle East aflame - Egypt, Syria, the Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq
Bob Westlake: Sort of holy war?
Dr. Burger: A Jihad - exactly. And on a vast scale. There is still widespread superstition amongst the desert tribes - and, as you know, there is already trouble enough in Morocco and elsewhere
Bob Westlake: And this is the mob that's kidnapped my wife...
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK(studio: produced at Nettlefold Studios)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 1h 8m(68 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1