"The Weapon" (1956) is a mixed blessing. It does present some marvelous action sequences. On the other hand, Steve Cochran makes a pretty charmless hero and his co-star, Lizabeth Scott, looks surprisingly dowdy. It's left to Nicole Maurey to present all the feminine allure, but while she appears so mightily attractive, she makes little headway against some of the tritest dialogue in the movie. In fact, the script regales audiences with too much uninteresting talk to sustain our consistent interest, yet it leaves vital plot points unclarified – even at the close! Unfortunately, Val Guest's direction does little to disguise the banal dialogue stretches, but once the camera moves away from Mr. Cochran, Guest's handling perks up considerably, with very impressive use of natural locations – so overwhelming in fact is the location material that it puts the movie firmly back into the "A"-grade class. It would seem that Guest realized Cochran and Scott were not only distinctly second string, but they were doing nothing for the film. Maybe that's why Herbert Marshall was employed in a very small, inconsequential role? It was no doubt thought that his name would give the cast credits a touch of much-needed luster.
Review of The Weapon
