THE CEREMONY

Laurence Harvey

THE CEREMONY (1963). Produced and directed by Laurence Harvey. NOTE: Some plot points are revealed in this review.

In Tangier Sean McKenna (Laurence Harvey of Butterfield 8) is being held in prison and and is being prepped for execution. McKenna participated in a bank robbery in which a guard was killed, although he did not fire the shot and apparently tried to stop it. The warden (John Ireland of No Place to Land) and prosecutor (Ross Martin) want McKenna to tell them where the money is, but he refuses. Meanwhile his brother, Dominic (Robert Walker Jr.),  hatches a plot to spring Sean from prison by replacing Father O'Brien (Jack MacGowran) when he comes to give Sean the last rites. But Sean doesn't realize that he must pay a price for his brother's assistance, a price that concerns Sean's girlfriend, Catherine (Sarah Miles).

Sarah Miles and Laurence Harvey

Produced and directed by and starring Laurence Harvey, The Ceremony is, sadly, a mess. What might have been a thrilling picture -- and it does have a couple of exciting sequences -- has been turned into a pretentious allegory, a painfully obvious anti-capital punishment tract whose one-dimensional characters fail to get a grip on the audience. We learn so little about Sean that it's hard to have any sympathy for a bank robber, and since -- whoever fired the shot -- the guard was killed during the commission of a robbery, it's hard to understand why one of the prison staff is so upset at the thought of his demise -- in a completely ridiculous scene all the members of the firing squad refuse to shoot him (or at least the person they think it is). 

John Ireland and Ross Martin

Harvey gives a decent but not great performance. Poor Ross Martin, generally a fine actor, is forced to play the cliche of the "evil" prosecutor who takes extreme pleasure in someone being executed -- he never even comes off as a real person. John Ireland does what he can with another underwritten role, that of the prison warden. Jack MacGowran is incredibly irritating as the fussy and dithering priest who seems half-senile and who continuously talks to himself while saying nothing remotely interesting. Sarah Miles does her best but is unable to bring Catherine, torn between two brothers, to believable life. Lee Patterson [Spin a Dark Web], who appears briefly as a friend of Sean's and Dominick's who helps the former escape, is relatively unscathed. The sensitive, uncredited young actor who plays the prison guard disturbed at the thought of Sean being executed probably comes off best, although his character is also undeveloped. 

Verdict: Interesting cast in rather dull movie sunk by its own pretensions. **.  

SPIN A DARK WEB

Sister and brother: Domergue and Benson 

SPIN A DARK WEB (1956). Director: Vernon Sewell. 

Jim Bankley (Lee Patterson) hopes to get a start in the fight game, but is willing to take anything. His friend, Buddy (Robert Arden), arranges for Jim to meet his boss, Rico Francesi (Martin Benson), but he particularly ignites the interest of Rico's sexy sister, Bella (Faith Domergue of Where Danger Lives). One of Rico's flunkies, McLeod (Bernard Fox), is told to pay a relatively benign call on a boxer, Bill (Peter Hammond), who refused to take a dive, but violence ensues, and Bill is killed. Jim is also involved with Bill's sister, Betty (Rona Anderson), who is appalled that he is now working for Rico. Things begin spiraling downward from there, with Jim regretting that he ever got involved with this mob, and Bella determined to hold on to him -- at any cost. 

Lee Patterson and Rona Anderson 

Spin a Dark Web is the kind of British thriller I would normally review on my brother blog B Movie Nightmare, but this picture is a little bit different. The main difference is a highly interesting cast. Lee Patterson was a Canadian actor who had quite a list of credits in British "B"s before landing a gig in the American private eye show Surfside Six and doing US TV work and soap operas thereafter. He gives a solid performance in this as a man a bit on the shady side who still has some principles. Faith Domergue [Dah-mure], a Howard Hughes discovery (and more) in her teens, became a cult figure due to appearances in such films as It Came from Beneath the Sea and This Island Earth. She gives a good performance in this although one might have wished she came on a lot stronger in certain sequences, but Joan Crawford she wasn't. Martin Benson was in everything from The Cosmic Monsters to Gorgo to Goldfinger and always fit the bill. Robert Arden was the leading man in Orson Welle's Mr Arkadin/Confidential Agent, and he scores in this supporting part as well. Pleasant and pretty, Rona Anderson appeared in numerous UK movies. 

Spin a Dark Web has a good (if familiar) story and is generally well-paced, although with better and tighter editing and more use of close-ups the climax could have been a real nail-biter. Domergue and Patterson play well together.

Verdict: Domergue is not so "dah mure" in this! ***.

JACK THE RIPPER (1959)

Out of his element: Lee Patterson 

JACK THE RIPPER (1959). Directors: Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman.

London. 1888. Jack the Ripper is stalking the west end, asking women if she is "Mary Clarke," and then bloodily dispatching them a moment later. Scotland Yard's Inspector O'Neill (Eddie Byrne) is on the case, but he welcomes the help of an old friend and American policeman named Sam Lowry (Lee Patterson). Lowry begins romancing Anne Ford (Betty McDowall), the ward of the surgeon Dr. Tranter (John Le Mesurier). Other characters include Dr. Urquhart (Garard Green); Sir David Rogers (Ewen Solon), the governor of the hospital; Louie (Endre Muller), a scarred mute who works at the hospital; Kitty (Barbara Burke), a former prostitute whose fiance killed himself when he learned of her past; and Hazel (Jane Taylor) a dance hall girl who doesn't realize that she's expected to fulfill certain other duties. Jack the Ripper has an excellent script by Jimmy Sangster, and while heavily fictionalized, it emerges as one of the better movies about the Ripper. Lee Patterson as the American cop acts as jauntily as if he just stepped out of an episode of Surfside 6, and is almost completely out of place in the film. The others are more on the mark, with especially nice work from Solon [The Hound of the Baskervilles] and Burke. The movie seems to have cheap TV production values for the most part, with much fog filling up the sound stage, but it nevertheless has atmosphere, as well as a suspenseful finale with an effectively gruesome coda (which briefly goes to color in some prints).

Verdict: Doesn't quite have the polish or production values of a Hammer film, but not bad at all. ***.

SURFSIDE 6

Troy Donahue, Lee Patterson, Van Williams

SURFSIDE 6 (1961).

This hour-long action-mystery series lasted for two seasons. Dave Thorne (Lee Patterson of The Flying Scot) and Kenny Madison (Van Williams of The Green Hornet) lived on a houseboat in Miami Beach and formed the Thorne-Madison private detective agency. Their rich buddy, Sandy Winfield III (Troy Donahue of Parrish) lived at the yacht club and kibitzed with the other two until he seemed to be working for, or with, them full-time. Each episode would star one of these three actors, although there were times when the others would appear; sometimes all three guys would get involved in a particularly difficult case. Beside the assorted women who would appear in each episode, there were two female regulars: Diane McBain as Daphne Dutton, a pretty heiress who hangs around the boys and occasionally gets mired in one of their cases; and Margarita Sierra as "Cha Cha" O'Brien, a poor man's Carmen Miranda and night club entertainer. Sierra was never a good fit for the program, as sometimes the story would have to stop dead to include one of her numbers while the other actors wore frozen smiles in reaction shots. On rare occasions "Cha Cha" would have something to do with the main storyline. Sierra over-sang everything terribly. In the first season the boys' police liaison was the gruff, nearly barking Lt. Snedigar (Don "Red" Barry), while in the second season he was replaced by Lt. Plehn (Richard Crane), who was a bit more pleasant but just as professional. Both actors offered interesting and adept portrayals, and Crane was especially good.

The most memorable episodes of the series include: "The Old School Tie," with Gloria Talbott involved with murder at a reunion; "Midnight for Prince Charming," with a lonely man conned by a criminal couple; "Race Against Time," with Lee's associates desperately trying to save his life after he's been poisoned on an airliner; "Vengeance is Bitter," concerning a roman a clef about a murder case and the attempts to uncover the author; "Anniversary Special," a twisted domestic drama about a TV host and his unhappy wife, with both roles played superbly by William Windom and Jeanne Cooper; and "Overdose of Justice," in which a ferociously good Mara Corday [Tarantula] plays a vicious beauty involved with a love-sick insurance man played by Ed Platt [Get Smart]. The vast majority of episodes in the series were solid "B"s if not better with a few clunkers along the way. Although Donahue tended to be a bit stiff, he was okay in most episodes, with Williams and Patterson exhibiting a bit more flair and charm. Diane McBain was lovely and talented. I can't make up my mind if the theme music is catchy or really annoying.

Verdict: Entertaining mystery series with handsome studs and pretty gals awash in intrigue. ***.

THE FLYING SCOT

Kay Callard and Lee Patterson

THE FLYING SCOT (aka The Mailbag Robbery/1957). Director: Compton Bennett.

Ronnie (Lee Patterson), Jackie (Kay Callard of The Unholy Four), and Phil (Alan Gifford) plan to rob a train called the Flying Scotsman which runs from Glasgow to London. The booty is many bags of bank notes that are destined to be burned. In a prologue that reminds one of the later film Gambit, the robbery goes off silently and without a hitch, the trio celebrating in South America. But that's just the run through and the way Ronnie hopes the robbery will go -- the real robbery is somewhat more difficult. Ronnie and Jackie pretend to be a couple on their honeymoon. Things are complicated by the fact that Phil has a perforated ulcer, postponing a trip to hospital to participate in the caper, and is in terrible pain. The wall between the room on the train and the compartment with the money next door has a barrier they didn't anticipate. There's a drunk who keeps hoping to get some liquor, and a cute little boy who wanders around getting into mischief ... The Flying Scot is a fast-paced, suspenseful crime drama with good performances. Lee Patterson later played a private detective on Surfside 6. Compton Bennett also directed such fine films as Daybreak and The Seventh Veil.

Verdict: Nifty little British "B." ***.