Sat 19 Nov 2011
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: DICK BARTON STRIKES BACK (1949).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Suspense & espionage films[4] Comments
DICK BARTON STRIKES BACK. Hammer Films, UK, 1949. Don Stannard, Sebastian Cabot, Jean Lodge, James Raglan, Bruce Walker, Humphrey Kent. Director: Godfrey Grayson.
On the same enjoyably juvenile level as the pair of adventure serials reviewed here a while back, there’s Dick Barton Strikes Back, starring square jawed Don Stannard as square-jawed Dick Barton, world famous secret agent.
This is a little kid’s idea of a Spy Movie, with transparent trickery, obvious “surprise” villains and character development just below the level of a CLUE game, but it was clearly also the precursor of the James Bond films, with the suave, hard-fighting hero flung in and out of the clutches of sinister villains and predatory females with equal aplomb.
It’s a time-waster, sure, but a fun thing, with death rays, a sinister carnival and a really gripping final set-to up and down a (rather unsettlingly phallic) tower.
There’s also Sebastian Cabot, unrecognizable sans his beard, sporting a slimy moustache and the definitive Gloating Laugh: a rich, hammy, belly-jiggling, touch-of-madness cascade of sound that usually follows lines like, “Unfortunately, you vill not liff to vitness our triumph. Mwah-hu-huh-haaahh!”
Delivering a laugh like that with a straight face is generally beyond actors of his calibre, but Cabot enters into the spirit of the thing with a childish glee I found infectious.
November 20th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
This film sounds like so much fun.
It is definitely something I want to see. (Had never heard of it before.)
I’ve been a big Sebastian Cabot fan since I was a kid. He was on TV in CHECKMATE, a show I only on rare occasions got to stay up and see.
Always thought he was born with his beard!
November 20th, 2011 at 8:51 pm
If Sebastian Cabot is one of the three guys in that bottom photo, I sure don’t recognize him!
November 21st, 2011 at 6:18 pm
It’s probably no surprise that the film comes across as a kid’s idea of a spy movie, as it was based on a BBC radio show of the late 40s/early 50s which had an enormous following amongst kids. This is the final Hammer spin-off, and definitely the best. I’ve never really thought of Blackpool Tower as phallic, but then I’ve never grappled a diabolic mastermind as he prepares to use his death ray.
For a long time it was thought that none of the original Dick Barton radio shows existed, but recently 338 episodes have turned up, and are being gradually released on CD.
November 22nd, 2011 at 3:55 am
I’ll definitely have to get this one too, thanks very much for the review. I’ve been getting reacquainted with the early Hammer thriller releases of late but must admit had not gone quite this far back – my Mum always makes me fall about when she tells me how when she was a girl she and her sister used to race home to listen to it on the radio