Saturday, July 06, 2024

Movie review - "Hide and Seek" (1964) ** (warning spoilers)

 Cold War thriller with Ian Carmichael in a Kenneth More style role - more accurately, Cary Grant, who Carmichael wanted to emulate. In his memoirs Carmichael says the original scrit was great but was rewritten. Maybe. I think he's miscast. I can see why he got the role - not bad looking, comic, etc... Kenneth More would've been more at home or Dirk Bogarde.

Janet Munro is lovely as the girl, a little mysterious, though she's too young for him. Actually it's not so much that (14 years difference) as the fact he's not hot enough for her. Incidentally erhe's a scene where she changes out of her wet clothes and flashes her bare back - racy!

But the basic problem of the film is it's not clear what Carmichael is doing... he's a scientist doing chess stuff, looking for a colleague, I think. But the whole thing is a trap from Curt Jurgens so it's a trick, which isn't that satisfactory.

Curt Jurgens adds some star power at the end and I liked Hugh Griffiths as a fisherman and scenes out in the countryside, which had the 39 Steps vibe this could have led into more.

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