Thu 9 Aug 2018
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: MAN BAIT (1952).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[8] Comments
MAN BAIT. Hammer Films-UK / Lippert Pictures-US, 1952. George Brent, Marguerite Chapman, Diana Dors, Raymond Huntley. Peter Reynolds, and Meredith Edwards. Screenplay by Frederick Knott, based on The Last Page, a play by James Hadley Chase. Directed by Terence Fisher.
A Pleasant surprise with the unlikely title Man Bait showed up on the bottom half of a double bill DVD billed as “Hammer Noir,†one of a series of co-productions between Hammer Studios and producer Robert Lippert.
BORING BACKGROUND – SKIP THIS PART: Robert Lippert was a producer of legendary cheapness and dubious ethics who churned out a slew of low-budget movies in the 1950s & 60s, mostly aimed at rural audiences and double bills. His favorite actors were Sid Melton, who didn’t need a script, and Margia Dean, whom he was sleeping with. When he hired bigger “name†actors (heavyweights like Cesar Romero or Rod Cameron) it was usually on a profit-sharing deal where the profits never materialized. As far as I can tell, the only ones who ever got a fair shake from Lippert were Sam Fuller, who carried a gun, and George Raft, who had Mob connections.
In the early 50s, Lippert discovered that the British government was subsidizing film production in England, and he could actually make movies cheaper there in partnership with a British studio. He hit upon the ploy of casting fading second-rank Hollywood “stars†(Raft, Romero, Scott Brady, Zachary Scott, and the like) for dubious box office power in the states, and a whole new sub-genre was born: the Anglo-American B-movie, which flourished, after a fashion, until the moguls at Hammer got a grasp on Lippert’s slippery bookkeeping.
AND NOW BACK TO THE MOVIE: This one stars audience-magnet George Brent and a very capable cast of Brits, including Raymond Huntley, playing his usual nasty martinet, Diana Dors as a sensuous not-quite-innocent, and Peter Reynolds, perfectly slimy as the small-time spiv who tempts our Diana into blackmail and murder — in a bookstore.
The plot has some surprising twists in it, but the strength of Man Bait is in the characterizations and atmosphere. Director Terence Fisher perfectly evokes the feel of a little book shop — all nooks and crannies and crowded shelves — and the writers people it with real bookstore-types if you know what I mean.
Which leads me to speculate on where they came from. I have read some of James Hadley Chase’s novels, and I’ll be charitable by saying characterization is not his strong suit. Man Bait is based on a stage play apparently by Chase, The Last Page. I can find no more about it, but the presence of Frederick Knott, just before he hit it big with Dial M for Murder leads me to suspect he played a strong hand in fashioning this film, and perhaps the play as well.
Whatever the case, Man Bait zips along suspensefully, with Brent framed for murder and the police oh-so-slowly figuring things out as another killing looms just ahead. Terence Fisher makes an impressive directorial debut, and even George Brent, never terribly exciting, lends a surprising inner strength to his quiet role. This one’s a winner.
August 9th, 2018 at 10:03 pm
Dors in her early days was fairly good in these roles, contributing more than her curves to the goings on.
I suspect that Knott is responsible for the better aspects of the script, though the basic setup is pure Chase, a writer once praised by Graham Greene who was better than his origins, but never quite as good as his fans liked to make out.
August 9th, 2018 at 10:45 pm
I agree with you about the picture, it is pretty good, but you were a little cavalier about some of the Lippert actors. Raft was definitely fading by the late forties, but for half a dozen years, at paramount and Warners, he was big time. Not second tier at all. As for Brent, he never became a big star, but top filmmakers and leading ladies embraced him, apparently on and off screen, but on is enough for this moment. Scott brady was second tier, but never without a job, and was offered Archie in All In The Family and turned it down. Romero, was just great — range, good humor, charm and as in Captain From Castile, able to turn on the dramatics.
August 9th, 2018 at 11:04 pm
According to my notes in THE BRITISH FILM NOIR GUIDE, I saw this film back in 2011 and thought it was very good. I especially liked the bookstore scenes in the first 30 minutes of the movie.
August 10th, 2018 at 8:10 pm
Given a choice between Marguerite Chapman and Diana Dors as they appeared in this movie, I don’t know who I’d pick.
Not that either one would give me a second look, that’s for sure.
August 10th, 2018 at 8:15 pm
Barry,
I second you on Raft, Brent, and Romero, all three having their moments. Brent was in many major films as the male lead, admittedly playing second fiddle to some of the great leading ladies, but doing so with some style and gift.
In addition Brent was an actual hero, not just a movie one, having distinguished himself as a mere teen during the Irish Revolution at the famed Dublin Post Office standoff.
Romero remained throughout his career a reliable actor whether as the ex gangster trying to catch the Rat Pack in OCEAN’S ELEVEN or as the Joker on Batman.
Raft, well he was Raft, always Raft, and that was enough for audiences for many years.
There is a basic misunderstanding of the great migration of American actors to Europe in the fifties and sixties. It wasn’t just washed up stars or stars who weren’t quite hot in the states at the time like Dane Clark. Lex Barker, or Lloyd Bridges. Kirk Douglas, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, and even Gary Cooper all made films in England and Europe, some of them more than one while Britih born actors like Ray Milland and Cary Grant returned to make films while their American careers were still strong.
There was money and there were films being made, and they went where the money and work was.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:08 pm
Thanks for your thoughts, David, and you really touched on something with your final thought about big stars going over. My understanding is that there were a pair of essential business reasons, not that a good script and director were not part of the equation, but … there was an income tax loophole for big earners who remained outside the United States for eighteen consecutive months. Clark Gable, for example, did that, and made Mogambo, Betrayed and Never Let Me Go.
The other related issue was concerned with monies earned by major producers/studios that could not be patriated to the Untied States, ergo, films were produced in Italy, England, and India, among other localities. MGM had set up, going back to the thirties, a British branch, but after the war, in order to gain access to funds legitimately earned, they sent Robert Taylor and company over to film Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward and Knights of the Round table. They spent their money, but created a marketable series of products for worldwide distribution. And, of course, not just Gable and Taylor. And, not just Metro. Turned out to be a win-win for all.
October 19th, 2020 at 3:31 pm
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