THE AMAZING MR. CALLAGHAN. French, 1955. Originally released as À toi de jouer Callaghan!. Also released in the US by Atlantis Films as Your Turn to Play, Callaghan. Tony Wright, Lisianne Rei, Colette Ripert, Robert Burnier, Robert Berni, Paul Cambo. Written and directed by Willie Rozier. based on the novel Sorry You’ve Been Troubled by Peter Cheyney.

   The success of Meet Mr. Callaghan and the hit theme from that film, plus the success of Peter Cheyney’s novels in the famed Serie Noire series of paperbacks in France was enough to inspire a series of films based on his work. Since it was Slim Callaghan who first made his way to the screen in England, so he appears here in the guise of Tony Wright, replete with the theme from the British film, outfitted with French lyrics and whistled off and on by the star.

   There is little about the blonde muscular Wright to suggest the slender character with dark messy hair and shabby suits from the Cheyney novels, and the adaptation of Sorry You’ve Been Troubled moves the action to the Riviera in 1955, where Slim is arriving to aid an English Colonel whose note for gambling losses is held by a none-too- honest casino.

   With help from his pal Windy Nicholls (Robert Burnier), here an older man than Slim unlike the books where he is a young Canadian, Slim sets him up as an American who needs to be skinned by a crooked Vicomte (Robert Berni) in with the boss and club owner (Paul Cambo). Unfortunately first thing out of the box he is recognized and has to fight for his life out of the villa housing the private club.

   From there on the action is fast and furious, as Slim seduces one beautiful girl involved in the ring after another, manages several underwater scenes to show off Wright’s physique and swimming skills, and plays the bad guys for suckers until the big showdown, a well done car-chase and a minor surprise reveal of the man behind it all. It’s lucky for Slim that he gets along with the French police much better than he does Scotland Yard.

   All of this is played for comedy for the most part, right down to Wright and Rei singing a duet in his sports car before the last clench, a trope that carried over into Eddie Constantine’s Lemmy Caution films.

   Wright played Slim in one earlier film in that same year, A Whiskey for Callaghan (based on It Couldn’t Matter Less), and once more in 1963. In 1957 Eddie Constantine made at least one Slim Callaghan film before taking on the role of suave wise cracking FBI undercover agent Lemme Caution.

   The Callaghan films are hard to find, but this one is available in French on YouTube and included below. You might take a look for yourself, it’s pretty self-explanatory, and there is some fun to be had, though Wright lacks the smirk and style — as well as the singing voice — of Constantine.