User reviews

In this sequel to the previous year's BARBADOS QUEST Tom Conway and Michael Balfour return as P. I. Tom Martin and his sidekick Barney. This time, they're trying to return a handbag to Paddy Webster. She's disappeared leading them to a missing formula, various thugs and, most important, Honor Blackman.

In rough outline, it looks like the FALCON series that Conway had starred in a decade and a half earlier, after his brother, George Sanders, had handed the role over to him -- he was anxious to take on more interesting projects, and starring in the SAINT series was enough; he didn't need the knockoff. All of which leads to the producers, who would go on to TV's Saint, starring Roger Moore. It looks like their fondness for the earlier series led naturally to Conway.

Conway's characterization seems to be built on being suave, and having the producers on his side, which means he's always a step ahead of everyone, except for Honor Blackman. It's a thoroughly pleasant lightweight timewaster, which is mildly puzzling, since it's directed by Henry Cass. Cass had begun as a stage actor. By the middle 1930s, he was directing major pieces at the Old Vic, then moved to films in 1937. By 1950, he was directing great movies, but his career began to slide after a couple of years. It looks like another case of someone who couldn't handle the strain at the top and retreated to the easy comfort of the Bs.

BREAKAWAY is the second of a couple of detective films starring the ubiquitous Tom Conway (brother of George Sanders) as a private eye who gets caught up in a double case involving a kidnapped woman and a special formula to combat metal fatigue that both the east and west are keen to get their hands on. Invariably the two cases are linked and with a aid of a few allies, Conway is soon hot on the trail of spies and the like.

Although it passes the time reasonably well, it's fair to say that BREAKWAY is an unremarkable British crime film. Other, even lower budgeted films did the whole private eye thing a lot better, for example the two Toff films made with John Bentley. Conway does have some basic charisma as the lead but he's getting on a bit here and he looks every inch his age.

The supporting cast is as interesting as ever for a British B-production. Honor Blackman is dolled up to look particularly glamorous - probably as glamorous as she ever looked, at least until GOLDFINGER. Michael Balfour contributes one of his patented 'buddy of the lead' role and has some good comic moments. American star John Colicos plays pretty much the same role as he did in the same year's PASSPORT TO TREASON, and boxer Freddie Mills is the bartender. There's also a nice cameo for Arthur Lowe. BREAKAWAY features a handful of action scenes including fist fights and one decently-portrayed car accident, but it's slim pickings for this particular genre.

Another nostalgic visit to a fifties London filled with big cars and empty streets. This potboiler about the usual attempts by nasty foreigners to get their clammy mitts on a formula crucial to winning the Cold War as usual has excellent photography by co.producer Monty Berman competing with an obtrusive score by Stanley Black.

About as humble as anything in which Honor Blackman and Arthur Lowe found themselves treading water before eventually becoming household names in the sixties; Miss Blackman here actually suffers the indignity of being billed third after wide boy Michael Balfour sporting an incredible Teddy Boy wig and a taste for loud clothes.

This is a lot of fun, but only if seen before or after BARBADOS QUEST. Both productions have Tom Conway and Michael Balfour playing the same characters while another 4 or 5 actors appear in both films playing different roles including John Colicos, who should forever be distinguished as the 1st Klingon seen on STAR TREK. In addition, both films were released within a few months of each other suggesting the possibility of interchangeable film shooting which would be the envy of Roger Corman, or Orson Welles.

All credit to Berman and Baker for not only making full use of their alloted time and money, but probably also using the Tom Conway character as a dry run for THE SAINT tv series which they produced a few years later.

After all this the quality of this film's plot and performances is almost incidental.

In West Berlin, a German scientist named Professor Dohlman has been working on a formula which may reduce metal fatigue. He is, however, dying and gives the formula to Johnny Matlock (Brian Worth) with the instruction that it should be passed on to the young man's brother Michael Matlock (John Horsley).

Johnny is in a relationship with Michael's secretary Diane (Paddy Webster) and meets her at the airport on his return to England. Also entering the country is the suave, unflappable private detective Tom 'Duke' Martin (Tom Conway) who is welcomed by his friend, the former petty criminal Barney Wilson (Michael Balfour). Soon, Matlock and the girl are kidnapped with only Diane's abandoned handbag remaining. 'Duke' investigates and learns that Diane was due to meet someone the following evening at a nightclub. He makes the appointment himself and meets the glamorous Paula (Honor Blackman), who turns out to be Diane's sister. Determined to return Diane's possessions personally, 'Duke' discovers that everyone else wants to steal them. It seems that the formula is contained somewhere in the bag and he must find it before the bad guys kill Diane.

This routine B-film was produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman, who would later have such tremendous success on television with The Saint. It is a sequel to Barbados Quest, made the same year, and again stars Tom Conway in a role identical to 'The Falcon', a character he played in ten B-films for RKO in the 1940s. The plot is a little more straightforward this time, albeit less interesting with its focus on corporate espionage. Confusingly, two actors reappear from the first film in different roles, which is jarring if one sees these back to back. John Horsley's Inspector Taylor is nowhere to be seen and the actor instead plays the sensible scientist at odds with his scheming brother, who played the bad guy last time out. There is a welcome appearance from the always excellent Alexander Gauge and a cameo from future Dad's Army star Arthur Lowe, while real-life boxer Freddie Mills is stunt-cast as a two-fisted barman.

Both films are reasonably entertaining, but less pacey than The Falcon films and seem to have a lower budget too. They are basically a couple of pilots for a television series which never materialised, but are efficient timewasters all the same. Conway is always watchable and was born to play such suave and darkly handsome characters. More so, I believe, than his brother George Sanders, who seemed ever so slightly lecherous when in similar roles. Conway was passed fifty here, and was beginning to show it, but proved nonetheless that he could have played the Falcon for a lot longer had RKO allowed it.

This is a modest British B thriller of the mid-fifties, which contains no remarkable performance. Its chief interest is historical, in that it shows some interesting shots of London at the time, and gives an extended view of what London's airport was like in 1955, including inside the hangars. The urbane and suave Tom Conway plays yet another gentleman detective, but he seems to have no zest for it this time, and his flirtations with women have lost their zing entirely, as he is getting on a bit and showing it. The plot concerns commercial espionage. Everyone wants to get hold of a new chemical formula to combat metal fatigue in aircraft and sell it for a fortune. Various chaps wave guns unconvincingly, someone gets shot in the shoulder, several unscrupulous people ooze greed enough to make us believe them, a girl is kidnapped without looking particularly frightened, and the plot is complex enough not to be boring. Honor Blackman has a major role, looking glamorous and intense, but has no magic. Arthur Lowe, later popular on television, does well in a cameo. Michael Balfour is silly as Conway's sidekick. This is no classic, but it is not hopeless.

Former FALCON Tom Conway in the second Tom 'Duke' Martin private eye flicks made in Britain during the film noir 1950's, with the right balance of gunplay, mystery and polite traipsing from various locations... from mansions to airports... gathering clues wherein sidekick Michael Balfour's overweight, ex-crook Barney is the better fighter during the rare times where that kind of risky thing happens...

Yet the villain and his henchman (including a young John Colicos) still mean business, having kidnapped beautiful Honor Blackman's beautiful sister, who might be carrying a scientist's secret that everyone's after...

Nothing like the tough guy American Humphrey Bogart vehicles from the previous decade, BREAKAWAY is as lightweight British yet still desperately urgent, keeping both the dignified snoop and audience on edge... despite knowing almost exactly who the villains are.

Tom Conway had of course starred as The Falcon.That series ,though only B features look positively stylish when compared with this truly lame effort.Conway looks as if he couldn't punch his way out of a paper bag.Michael Balfour has the silliest wig going,and his lines are almost as inept.There is also ex boxer Fredie Mills in the part of a barmen.He couldn't act for toffees.Honor Blackman is totally wasted.the plot is complex but totally uninvolving.It is the standard plot for the mid 1950s,relating to commercial espionage.there are many familiar faces but little inspiration.Incidentally watch closely when Seton comes out of his club ,gets into a car and drives away.If you look in the reflection in the boot of the car you will see a member of the crew signalling to Mills to make his entrance.

I got this movie because it was one of three Honor Blackman movies that I did not own. It's just been released as an R2 DVD, part of a series called "The Best of British Collection". The disc rated U runs 71 minutes and is of course PAL format.The quality of the print is excellent.

The movie is about the search for a formula to combat metal fatigue, an important issue at the time following the Comet disasters. It's not particularly good with a couple of so so car chases and contrived fights. I'd rent it rather than buy it.

Honor Blackman has smallish part, Freddie Mills is a friend of the hero and Michael Balfour, who seems to pop up in bits in just about every British movie of the period has his longest part that I have ever seen as the lovable, dumb factotum of the hero Tom Conway.

Not much here even as historical interest.