Sunday, October 11, 2020

Movie review - "48 Hours to Live" (1959) * (warning: spoilers)

 Gets points for novelty - Anthony Steel in decline in a Swedish movie made in English in Sweden. Story acceptible B movie stuff though even by 1959 it was more likely to be found on TV, even the third act twist (his random friend is with the baddies).

I think Steel was meant to play a stock swashbuckling reporter like the one Rod Taylor did in Hong Kong. It's beyond Steel's abilities but he is handsome and has that nice voice and his polite performance at least as some professionalism. The support cast are more variable.

It's badly directed. Actors consistently play scenes in two shots against bland backgrounds. It was shot on location in Sweden but only a few scenes show off that. This could have been filmed anywhere. The Swedish accents give it novelty.

Occasionally when the scientist walks across a desolate beach you get an image of what this could have been.

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