Review of Track the Man Down

I've seen a number of British b-movies from the 50s that feature an American star and were distributed stateside by Lippert Pictures. This film, although made in Britain with an all-British supporting cast, stars American actor Kent Taylor (an actor in the Robert Taylor mode, for those not familiar with him---probably best known to audiences under 50 for his Al Adamson and Filipino horror films) and was directed by longtime Republic pictures director R. G. Springsteen--it was released in the USA by Republic. The film begins with a dog-track robbery, then veers off into the story of one of the robbery's participants, his girlfriend, and her sister (played well by Petula Clark who, unlike in her French crime film DAGGERS DRAWN, does not sing here), and then by a cleverly plotted coincidence newspaper reporter Kent Taylor, who was in the police station after the crime was committed, gets brought into the story, although he is following something else. I won't give too much away, but in the classic "petrified forest" tradition, much of the film takes place in a limited setting with a limited number of characters--a tempermental actress, her manager, a drunk, a young mother, Kent Taylor, Petula Clark, and others who shall remain nameless as I won't be a spoiler. Each character is well drawn, there's even some comic relief, and Mr. Taylor brings his usual class to the film. There are no great surprises here, but it's an entertaining way to kill 75 minutes for the fan of b-crime and mystery films. Director Springsteen went on to direct a number of Western tv shows in the late 50s and early 60s and then a number of A.C. Lyles productions in the mid-60s--a personal favorite of mine is HOSTILE GUNS with George Montgomery and Tab Hunter. His final film is the obscure TIGER BY THE TAIL starring Christopher George from 1968, which I've always wanted to see. The few references I've seen to this film are due to Petula Clark's being in it. She is excellent, and while watching it I completely forgot that she was Petula Clark, singing star, because she played the character so well. My only complaint is that Kent Taylor seems a little too old to be attempting to romance her (KT was 48 at the time, PC was 23). Other than that, this is solid b-movie entertainment. My copy was taped off CBN in 1984...hope you can find one. If ONLY tv still showed films like this!