Customer Reviews

Clouded Yellow, the

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This is an interesting film about England, though it is a thriller and its main objective is to describe a crime and to follow the investigation. But the main part of the film is a chase of the police after two escapees, one of them being the suspected « killer ». This chase makes us discover England, a rather old period of it, under a very interesting light. We have a close vision of Liverpool harbour, of the railway station, of the Lake District, etc. It also shows how a man from the secret services has connections in all quarters of the city and is able to get about everything he wants. It also indicates how the police is unable to cope with an ex-secret-serviceman whereas a man from the secret service can get him rather fast. This escapee knows it and he plans it so that he is just one leap ahead, just enough to escape and bring the real criminal to the trap he lays out for him. It is amazing to discover how many people in England help this man because of his reputation we imagine is positive and because he escapes the police, and thus must be right and has to be helped and protected. This kind of reaction is rather rare in England where the police is very well respected. It is thus necessary to mention it because this « solidarity » is quite uncommon. Apart from that the thriller itself is very well made and the acting is quite good, for a little film of that type. This is also very English, at least in a time when they had a good independent cinema industry : even a little film had good actors, which was and still is far from being the case in the USA.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

You'll love this movie if you liked Hitchcock's The Thirty-Nine Steps, Young and Restless or North by Northwest. Like those movies, this is a psychological thriller that begins indoors but then spends much of its time in a chase across country, with interesting scenery and great thrills. Jean Simmons looks fabulous and Trevor Howard (one of my favorite actors - think of I See a Dark Stranger, The Third Man, or Brief Encounter) is excellent - cooly intelligent, reserved. I love this movie, and give it 4 (rather than 5) stars only because the black and white movie is a little dated. Do rent or buy it - you are bound to enjoy it.