It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
View MoreThis is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
View MoreAfter playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
View MoreThe biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
View MoreWhoever is responsible for the story that told by this film simply didn't know of a reasonable way to pull it together, and so just let it fall apart.After an unexplained separation of six years, an American flies to the UK to meet the woman whom he loves, an actress of some fame. As he and the other passengers walk from the plane to a terminal building, a man whom he stops by chance is felled by a sniper's bullet. The sniper walked with the assistance of a crutch. It is discovered that the woman whom the American has come to see had been both sexually involved and engaged in smuggling with the man identified as the victim of the sniper; apparently she was motivated to do these things because of her longing for the American. Further, her lover had subsequently blackmailed her, and now his presumptive widow, a singer, was blackmailing her. On the way, we discover that someone with an administrative rôle at the singer's theater uses a crutch. When the actress attempts to pay the singer, the actress and the audience learn that the presumptive dead man is still alive, and being assisted by his wife. The fellow with the crutch makes an appearance and is greatly injured by the blackmailer. The police, who have been going about the business of trying to solve the murder and trying to run the actress to ground show-up. A search for the blackmailer is begun; he has for no very good reason disguised himself as the fellow with the crutch, and when the police begin looking for a man with a crutch, it does not occur to him to chuck the thing aside; instead, he retreats to a balcony. When he is spotted, the America dashes after him, instead of allowing the surrounding police to do their job. A struggle ensues, with the American finding himself to be pushed off the balcony.Were the film to break at this point, the audience would be left with many questions. Answering even just some of them in a satisfactory manner would be quite a challenge.Well, the American awakes, because it was all a dream. That was the best answer that the writers had for us. (Formally, the ending has the disembarked American and the actress happily running each towards the other, perhaps to assure us that he hasn't dreamt exactly the future he were about to enter.) If, up to that point of awakening, the story had been, in some interesting way, dream-like, then that ending might be sensible or at least forgivable. But the story had been a haphazard construction of implausibilities, and the ending was simply a cheat.
View MoreYou mean to tell me I watched 1 hour 16 minutes of this somewhat interesting film for last 1 1/2 minutes to be this big of a let down?!! I feel like I lost my mind with this ending - like I was just cheated. The finale really is a cop-out and I am not kidding. I don't know if I should laugh at or be angry about it or what with this ending. You will just have to see this film from start to finish just to see this ending to understand the impact of how weird it is and it will leave you scratching your head wondering why I wasted 1 hour 16 minutes of time with this film.Outside of the ending, it's an okay film. Not grand but not all that bad. The singing parts I had to fast-forward through, her voice sounded like fingernails scratching a chalk board to my ears. But the story would have been fine if the ending matched the film better.4/10
View MoreWhen in the middle of this film, Lloyd Bridges asks about a certain clue, "What do you make of it?", you may, like me, expect the flamboyant Johnny from "Airplane!" to jump in and say, "A hat, a broach, a pterodactyl!". Yes, like Peter Graves, Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen, the Bridges patriarch started off in dramatic roles, yet found his niche in spoofing his own image through comedy. It is difficult to separated him from these roles even though he originally played either heavies or action heroes before changing his image by stating, "Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!" Here, he's all serious, an American visiting England who was at the airport when a sniper shot a mystery man who turns out to be the other man in a triangle with Bridges' estranged girlfriend (Moira Lister). Bridges learns the truth and details about his girlfriend's secret life that leads him into all sorts of intrigue.American stars in British film noir and thrillers added a smooth touch to the stiff upper lip pretense of the English in all sorts of parts, good and evil, and the results could be very mixed at times. The Hammer Noir was decidedly mixed, and this ranks among them as an acceptable, if unremarkable, thriller with moments of tension and other sequences sometimes dull and slowly paced. Bridges stands out like a sore thumb among the rest of the cast, and if it wasn't for some crafty dark photography, this might well have fallen below the mark.So try to put aside your desire to quote him from "Airplane!" or the "Hot Shots" movies and instead, take a trip into the dives of London, Music Halls and pups and let Bridges remind you of what a serious actor he used to be before a diving suit and the Zucker Brothers changed his image forever.
View MorePeople had told me about the ending of "The Limping Man" - my response was how bad could it be - the answer - extremely bad!!!! It would have been so much easier to end the film on a more conventional note - but no, someone with a vivid imagination thought - I will make this really memorable - it was memorable but for all the wrong reasons!!!Frank Prior (Lloyd Bridges) is flying back to England to see whether the girl he met during the war still loves him as much as he does her. Crossing the tarmac, one of the passengers is killed by an unknown sniper, just after Prior asks him for a light. After being cleared to go by the police, Frank, tries to contact his friend, Pauline, whose photo just happens to be in the dead man's (Kendall Brown) pocket. When he catches up with Pauline (Moira Lister) she is quite nervous. The police also want to talk to Helen Castle (Helene Cordet), who has a novelty magic act "Hey Presto". She was Kendall's wife but they have been separated for 3 years - or so she says!!!Meanwhile Frank and Pauline spend a leisurely day on the river but when the boat runs out of petrol the man who comes to their assistance seems to know her, as does a stranger from the pub. (Rachel Roberts has a few moments as a chatty barmaid). Then Frank sees the limping man!!!! He finds he is deep in a plot that involves smuggling and incriminating love letters. There is a very funny scene where Frank and Pauline climb into a room (to evade the police) where two children are watching TV - the children get upset because they think the strangers will tell their parents about their nocturnal TV viewing. When they go downstairs the parents are having a party and just assume Frank and Pauline guests!!This was typical of the style of thrillers that John Mills had made ("The Long Memory" etc). I agree Moira Lister was very lack lustre and seemed quite unexciting in her role, certainly not interesting enough to be the dare devil she portrayed. More interesting was Jean Marsh, who became famous playing Rose in the prestigious TV series "Upstairs, Downstairs" - she made her debut in this film playing the land lady's teenage daughter. Lloyd Bridges had several leading roles before his phenomenally successful role as Mike Nelson in the TV series "Sea Hunt".
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