Friday, August 03, 2012

Movie review - "Dick Barton at Bay" (1950) **

Number three of the Dick Barton series - made second but released third. There would have been four but the lead Don Stannard was killed in a car accident. (I'm surprised Hammer, always keen to do a remake and follow a trend, didn't revive the character in the wake of 60s Bond mania). Just as the second Dick Barton film had this annoying climax involving a siren sound, this has one involving a lighthouse light that goes on and off during the final scenes and is incredibly irritating.

This starts briskly enough with the murder of another agent just after having phoned Barton (played by Patrick MacNee!) - I hope someone does an article one day on fellow secret agents who are killed at the beginning of films e.g. all those guys in the Bond movies. The action soon gets very familiar and conventional - Barton pretends to be dead to investigate, a scientist who has invented a ray gun is kidnapped by baddies, the scientist has a hot daughter, etc. It's fairly ordinary with that annoying light at the end.

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