Warwick Films got off to a solid start with three respectable action films with Alan Ladd - presumably they wanted him for their fourth effort, but it fell through and they wound up with another American, Richard Widmark. It was the only film he'd make for that company.
It repeats the Warwick formula - action, colour, technically British but aimed at international market, a "global" story, American star opposite a British one (Nigel Patrick, not well remembered today but a name at the time - one of the top ten British stars in 1952), a love interest (Mai Zetterling).
It's set in Germany where soldier Widmark decides to rob some gold bullion. Thing is, he's doing it to help some cute orphans and their sexy guardian, Mai Zetterling - which means this film doesn't have balls. He should've just stole because he wanted the money.
Widmark was an ordinary action hero - certainly never as good as when he was a villain. He's okay. Nigel Patrick isn't a bad villain - the one guy who really wants to do the robbery.
George Cole and Donald Wolfit offered inspired support. Zetterling's role isn't much - she's this madonna/whore figure, looking after orphans, sleeping with her boss to help feed them, falling for Widmark (the meet cute romance scenes feel clunky in here, like they were shoved in via a rewrite to beef up Zetterling's role - I could be completely wrong about that). Widmark falls for Zetterling - it's not clear if she genuinely likes him.
There is location filming in Germany but that's mainly overcast cities and urban places. It's realistic, just not that pretty. Fairly ordinary heist film.
No comments:
Post a Comment