Reviews

I watched this as part of an Ealing Studios rarities collection. These collections are always hit and miss affairs with the quality of the films varying wildly from very good to, like this one, really, really poor.

First of all the story is weak beyond belief, concerning an ex docker appointed as Governor of a British colony in the Mediterranean. A situation like this has endless possibilities but the producers went for the lazy option of having the ex docker trying to quell a volatile dock strike. Normally in Ealing films a weak storyline can be overcome with charm but I'm afraid one actor put paid to any chance of that happening..... My main quibble is with the performance of Eric Portman as the new Governor. His portrayal of the no nonsense, plain speaking Yorkshireman is so bad it spills over into caricature and worse. He spends the whole film shouting and barking at everyone in sight. This goes beyond irritating and becomes incredibly annoying. I could hear and understand everyone else very clearly but at points he was unintelligible. I've seen Mr Portman in many films and he was a very good actor but he was terrible in this.

I've never given any film such a low star rating but I'm afraid Mr Portman is to blame for that. If you haven't seen it and you're tempted, please don't waste your time.

I've never seen Ivor Novello like this before. Everything I've seen him in always seemed hammy, melodramatic, and over the top but here he is in a comic role and throwing out lines like Paul O'Grady - he even looks a bit like him. Quite a revelation. Mr Novello was gay at a time when you couldn't be out in the open about it apart from in theatrical circles and, even though this isn't a gay character he's playing, his performance is quite camp. I don't know how well this film did at the box office but I know this was quite a successful play on stage in London's West End. It's a shame he didn't do more films like this.

A fairly run of the mill early fifties British spy thriller with some familiar faces along the way. Leslie Dwyer does his usual good job as a private investigator but the film is really enlivened by Mary Mackenzie as the female lead. She isn't an actress I'm familiar with and it seems hers was a career confined to small parts before she died in a car crash aged only 44. She's not obvious leading lady material but she's very good in this and comes over well. The best description I can come up with to describe her is that she has a passing resemblance to Flora Robson but with sex appeal. Nothing groundbreaking about the film itself but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

Honey Pie credited as written by George Harrison? Wrong, it's a Paul McCartney song and should be credited to Lennon & McCartney. The original is on the Beatles' 'White Album' which was actually called The Beatles.

A film from 1946 with an interesting theme about the problems facing returning soldiers and their families after WW2. It takes a different tack to Best Years of Our Lives but its a good idea poorly executed and just doesn't quite pull it off. Unfortunately it's let down badly by the leading man, Guy Madison. He certainly was good looking so you can see why the studio signed him up but boy, he was no actor. Wooden doesn't describe it. He's dire. And judging from one scene in the film he couldn't dance either. Even more wooden. I gave it a chance but it's difficult to get past the terrible central performance.

This is really not a very good film. Some big names and a novel idea but poorly executed. It really doesn't get going. Marcia Gay Harden looks great and as you'd expect she does well with what she's given but along with the three guys she's wasted.

A short (20m) colour film made in the 1950s which shows the maiden voyage of a fishing vessel named the Glen Struan heading north out of Aberdeen towards the waters around Greenland in search of halibut. There is still a Scottish fishing industry but it is much reduced from when this film was made so we get a lovely glimpse, simply filmed, of how things once were, on board at sea and back at the fish quay. This was possibly shown in cinemas down the bill along with a cartoon and a newsreel, though I can't be sure. The film seems to have been sponsored by Esso and though originally it was simply an information film it now stands as a historical document.