It is so amusing that in the 1940s and 1950s, redheaded actresses were the subject of boasting by film companies, even in film titles like this one, despite the fact that the films were all in black and white so that you could not possibly tell that they were redheaded at all. Rhonda Fleming and Rita Hayworth were talked about in this way long before anymore saw their hair in colour. We can only presume that Carole Mathews, who plays the redheaded mystery woman in this film, really was a redhead, as there is no way to tell. She appears still to be alive aged 92, having retired as an actress as long ago as 1978, after making 92 films (one for each year of her life so far). She was Miss Chicago in 1938 but had already appeared as an uncredited dancer in two films before that. Much better known is the square-jawed hero of this film, Richard Denning, who appeared in 113 films. Despite having some American actors, this is a British 'B' picture about postwar intrigue in London when there are still Nazis about, who are up to their usual mischief. I regret to say that the film is bland and mediocre. The Cold War is strangely absent from the plot. There are some fascinating location shots of London Airport as it was in 1956, showing the exterior of the BEA (British European Airways) passenger terminal as little more than a shed! It is always interesting to watch the location filming of London during this period, whatever silly story is going on. The director of this tepid tale is Maclean Rogers, who did three of the Paul Temple films, and indeed managed to direct 87 films before he retired in 1960, none of them notable. This film is neither good nor bad, it is just a B movie and that's all. It is watchable in an unengaging way, and that's all one can say really.
10 Reviews
Likeable if mindless British B-MOVIE
liammurphy14 September 2003
This movie wasn't THAT bad but it had so many plot holes, poor acting by the lead chararecters, unconvincing fight scenes and it all seems a bit unrealistic although the director manages to sustain some tension despite a very poorly written script. The story rambles for far too often - even though it's only just over an hour long.
All in all a pretty mediocre 50's B movie done with very little style and is really of only intrest to fans of low budget 1950's British Films
My rating 6/10 (Because the actors try their best with very poor material and their very limited acting abilities)
All in all a pretty mediocre 50's B movie done with very little style and is really of only intrest to fans of low budget 1950's British Films
My rating 6/10 (Because the actors try their best with very poor material and their very limited acting abilities)
Richard Denning Is Keen By Name, Not So Much By Nature
boblipton7 April 2023
Ronald Adams, criminal extraordinaire, makes a nice living in counterfeit money and passports. To confuse American intelligence man Richard Deming -- apparently Great Britain has none of their own -- he kills one man and frames Hugh Moxey. While Deming is haring after the accused guy, he falls in love with shady Carole Matthews, while Moxey and his girlfriend investigate. Meanwhile, Adams is on the track of $12,000,000 in counterfeit money.
The nice thing about seeing Maclean Rogers as writer-director of this Butchers movie is you can watch it with your expectations set low. With that in mind, it's a decent enough flick, if you aren't distracted by all the misplaced accents. The plot is nicely tangled, so much that half the dialogue seems to be people explaining to others things they already know. Still, an adequate time-waster, which is what you hope for with Rogers.
The nice thing about seeing Maclean Rogers as writer-director of this Butchers movie is you can watch it with your expectations set low. With that in mind, it's a decent enough flick, if you aren't distracted by all the misplaced accents. The plot is nicely tangled, so much that half the dialogue seems to be people explaining to others things they already know. Still, an adequate time-waster, which is what you hope for with Rogers.
"This Thing Would Have To Be Arranged With Finesse"
stryker-54 December 2000
... but wasn't. If the Walmington-on-Sea Amateur Dramatic Society had been given a postal order for four pounds seventeen shillings and sixpence and invited to write, shoot and act out a film about Nazi contraband, the good burghers of Walmington would have come up with something slicker and more sophisticated than this.
Gregory Keen is a handsome American intelligence officer seconded to the British secret service in the wake of World War Two and the Berlin Blockade. His task is to thwart the nefarious plans of dastardly supercrook Dumetrius, "a man who's butchered his way half across Europe - and whom it's up to you to get!" (Yes, that really is quoted from the script.)
This awful British film of the Austerity period defines the term "amateurish". Clumsy fight scenes, un-scary bad guys like the cuddly Yotti Blum (Danny Green), a French secret agent with a crazy accent swanning around London wearing an inconspicuous beret, dreadful lines such as "You unclean cretin!" - need I go on?
The action, written and directed by someone called Maclean Rogers, is full from start to finish of absurd improbabilities. For the assassination attempt, why would the decrepit sexuagenarian Dumetrius (Ronald Adam) climb onto a rooftop with a rifle? Doesn't he have henchmen for that sort of thing? And how did he know that his 'target' would appear at this very window? In the warehouse denouement, how come the smoke doesn't move when the camera pans? It couldn't possibly be a cheaply overlaid special effect, could it? How come Rubinstein can give up half his fortune, which he protected from the rapacioua Nazis, with as much equanimity as if he were handing over a box of matches?
Coutts describes Dumetrius in one of the script's many indigestible mouthfuls as "cunning, ruthless, completely unscrupulous and will stop at nothing". One cannot help but wish that at least some of the bad guy's demonic energy had infused a few of the other people involved in this project. Nothing whatsoever in this feeble farrago comes close to being convincing. The appearance of Dumetrius, in disguise, on a routine military flight out of Berlin is plain ludicrous (wouldn't there be just the slightest risk that someone might KNOW the British officer he's trying to impersonate?), but no more ludicrous than the presence on the same flight of Hedy Bergner (Carole Matthews), the allegedly glamorous accordion player, journeying to London to play a single gig at a night club. Putting aside the universally-held view that the last time the accordion was a cool instrument was NEVER, what is she doing on a military transport? Was the accordion in so much demand in 1956? Wasn't Jimmy Shand available? And did she obtain that coiffure by letting the regimental goat chew her hair? Marzatti's is as trashy and unbelievable as one might expect - a night club depicted by someone who's never been to a night club, for an audience that has never been to one either. Why isn't Sally Jennings fazed when the strange man grabs her in the dark?
Richard Denning plays Keen, a phenomenon all too common in British films of the era - a token American, brought in to add "class". Well, compared to the rest of the movie, perhaps he succeeds. Such things are relative.
Gregory Keen is a handsome American intelligence officer seconded to the British secret service in the wake of World War Two and the Berlin Blockade. His task is to thwart the nefarious plans of dastardly supercrook Dumetrius, "a man who's butchered his way half across Europe - and whom it's up to you to get!" (Yes, that really is quoted from the script.)
This awful British film of the Austerity period defines the term "amateurish". Clumsy fight scenes, un-scary bad guys like the cuddly Yotti Blum (Danny Green), a French secret agent with a crazy accent swanning around London wearing an inconspicuous beret, dreadful lines such as "You unclean cretin!" - need I go on?
The action, written and directed by someone called Maclean Rogers, is full from start to finish of absurd improbabilities. For the assassination attempt, why would the decrepit sexuagenarian Dumetrius (Ronald Adam) climb onto a rooftop with a rifle? Doesn't he have henchmen for that sort of thing? And how did he know that his 'target' would appear at this very window? In the warehouse denouement, how come the smoke doesn't move when the camera pans? It couldn't possibly be a cheaply overlaid special effect, could it? How come Rubinstein can give up half his fortune, which he protected from the rapacioua Nazis, with as much equanimity as if he were handing over a box of matches?
Coutts describes Dumetrius in one of the script's many indigestible mouthfuls as "cunning, ruthless, completely unscrupulous and will stop at nothing". One cannot help but wish that at least some of the bad guy's demonic energy had infused a few of the other people involved in this project. Nothing whatsoever in this feeble farrago comes close to being convincing. The appearance of Dumetrius, in disguise, on a routine military flight out of Berlin is plain ludicrous (wouldn't there be just the slightest risk that someone might KNOW the British officer he's trying to impersonate?), but no more ludicrous than the presence on the same flight of Hedy Bergner (Carole Matthews), the allegedly glamorous accordion player, journeying to London to play a single gig at a night club. Putting aside the universally-held view that the last time the accordion was a cool instrument was NEVER, what is she doing on a military transport? Was the accordion in so much demand in 1956? Wasn't Jimmy Shand available? And did she obtain that coiffure by letting the regimental goat chew her hair? Marzatti's is as trashy and unbelievable as one might expect - a night club depicted by someone who's never been to a night club, for an audience that has never been to one either. Why isn't Sally Jennings fazed when the strange man grabs her in the dark?
Richard Denning plays Keen, a phenomenon all too common in British films of the era - a token American, brought in to add "class". Well, compared to the rest of the movie, perhaps he succeeds. Such things are relative.
The only good bit is the accordion playing
lucyrfisher28 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Who is the central character? Peter Ridgeway, the British officer on leave from Germany? Or Keen, the American seconded to MI5 to track down a gang that fakes papers in order to distribute the fake dollars printed by the Nazis in WWII. The only vivid character is Sally the cigarette girl. Ronald Adam is always watchable, but here he struggles with a baffling script and pallid direction. Male characters tend to put on overcoats or macintoshes over their hugely baggy suits and end up looking like teddy bears in dressing gowns. Not exactly menacing.
The duplicitous accordion-player, Hedy, hangs out in a flat with fake stonework wallpaper that's much more interesting than any acting going on nearby.
The duplicitous accordion-player, Hedy, hangs out in a flat with fake stonework wallpaper that's much more interesting than any acting going on nearby.
No cloak, no dagger.....
Sleepin_Dragon1 December 2020
....They certainly weren't wrong when they said that.
It made me think of that hilarious quote, snooker on black and white TV, where's the yellow? It's behind the green and next to the pink.... who was the redhead? Slightly interesting marketing.
It's not a classic, it screams b movie in terms of budget, acting, cast, sadly the story isn't even that good.
The story is dreary, but ambitious, it doesn't show the British or American services in a good light, they're all a little on the dim side.
Richard Denning looks the part, and delivers arguably a good performance, the trouble is that he's working with a very poor script, it's clunky and disjointed, the dialogue lacks any sort of life.
Carole Mathews, I didn't think was great, at times she sounds Spanish, sometimes Dutch, and other times she sounds like Miss Popov from Rentaghost.
It has a certain charm, one I find applies to many movies and shows from this era, so if you enjoy the atmosphere, clothes, cars, dodgy fight scenes, you'll possibly find this passable. 5/10.
It made me think of that hilarious quote, snooker on black and white TV, where's the yellow? It's behind the green and next to the pink.... who was the redhead? Slightly interesting marketing.
It's not a classic, it screams b movie in terms of budget, acting, cast, sadly the story isn't even that good.
The story is dreary, but ambitious, it doesn't show the British or American services in a good light, they're all a little on the dim side.
Richard Denning looks the part, and delivers arguably a good performance, the trouble is that he's working with a very poor script, it's clunky and disjointed, the dialogue lacks any sort of life.
Carole Mathews, I didn't think was great, at times she sounds Spanish, sometimes Dutch, and other times she sounds like Miss Popov from Rentaghost.
It has a certain charm, one I find applies to many movies and shows from this era, so if you enjoy the atmosphere, clothes, cars, dodgy fight scenes, you'll possibly find this passable. 5/10.
Butcher's Film fiasco
Leofwine_draca12 May 2015
Butcher's Film Productions made a mixed bag of films for sure but ASSIGNMENT REDHEAD has to be one of their very worst. It's a sloppily made post-war thriller with bad editing and a generally dull murder mystery storyline that never seems to go anywhere despite the intriguing storyline. In it, the authorities are hunting for a master criminal who they know was travelling on a particular plane. They have a cast of suspects to choose from, but which of them is it?
The format of the film is of a stodgy police procedural with little incident or action to recommend it, and when the action does hit it's very uninteresting. It doesn't help that few of the British cast members are up to the job of putting on a convincing European accent, and there's a romantic sub-plot that drags things down still further. Although I consider myself a fan of Butcher's Films I think this is their worst yet.
The format of the film is of a stodgy police procedural with little incident or action to recommend it, and when the action does hit it's very uninteresting. It doesn't help that few of the British cast members are up to the job of putting on a convincing European accent, and there's a romantic sub-plot that drags things down still further. Although I consider myself a fan of Butcher's Films I think this is their worst yet.
Abysmal Thriller
malcolmgsw13 June 2013
This was a truly awful British thriller.It is impossible to find a good word to say about it.The acting veers from the mediocre to the amateur.Who thought that Danny Green could handle a foreign accent?The fight scenes are so badly arranged that each blow manages to be seen to miss its target by about one foot.Some of it doesn't even make sense.There is one scene towards the end when Demetrius and his partner drive into a wood to agree on a split.We next see a policeman get off his bike.Then we go back to the pair.A gun goes off but no policeman.We don't ever see him again.Demetrius kills his partner and pushes the car with him inside over a cliff,cue an abysmal model shot.At the end there is a fire in a warehouse and it is quite obvious that the smoke is an exposure over the main picture.This is the sort of film that gives B movies a bad name!
Accent on the Dum in Dumetrius.
mark.waltz9 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This is another poor cold war thriller which deals with a counterfeiting ring in an attempt to destroy the British economy by the evil former Nazi still intent on sabotage. American B actor Richard Denning is a Yank abroad, protecting pretty accordion player Carole Matthews from being Dumetrius's next victim after accidentally being in a picture that included the nasty dumb Nazi. When Matthews is seen playing the dreaded accordion in a nightclub, it gives another motive for murder.
The ridiculous script has various passengers being questioned, and one quickly escaping and grabbing a cockney female passerby who acts like this is an every day occurrence. There are far too many characters involved, some seemingly double agents, quickly betraying those whom they were earlier helping out. I'll give this credit for some great location footage and a few tense action scenes, bit it's a mindless muddle of convoluted plot with one dimensional characters and no one to really cheer for.
The ridiculous script has various passengers being questioned, and one quickly escaping and grabbing a cockney female passerby who acts like this is an every day occurrence. There are far too many characters involved, some seemingly double agents, quickly betraying those whom they were earlier helping out. I'll give this credit for some great location footage and a few tense action scenes, bit it's a mindless muddle of convoluted plot with one dimensional characters and no one to really cheer for.
Somewhat ragged, but somehow appealing
wilvram16 April 2012
This was a slightly more ambitious project than usual from the Butcher's company, with the budget stretching to hire two American stars. Richard Denning is Major Keen, seconded to MI5 from US military intelligence; not something he shows a great deal of as he blunders about, arresting the wrong man. Informed of the activities of the arch villain Dumetrius, he responds "sounds like a lot of nonsense to me", which is a fair summary of the narrative. Carole Mathews, soon after her labours in Roger Corman's SWAMP WOMEN, provides the glamour as the enigmatic Hedy, and redhead or not she still looks pretty good. One memorable scene has her trying to cope with a large accordion, in what must be London's smallest ever nightclub. Ronald Adam, playing Dumetrius was notable for his incredibly full and busy life, fighting in both World Wars, including being shot down while on active duty in the Royal Flying Corps in the First, as well as later founding theatrical groups and appearing in hundreds of stage plays, films and TV productions. He brings his customary authority to the role, but hardly suggests the kind of cosmopolitan, chameleon like character indicated by the script.
Director Maclean Rogers wrote the screenplay after adapting Lindsay Hardy's 'Requiem for a Redhead' perhaps unwisely lifting whole chunks of dialogue from the book in the process. It appears from the gaps and inconsistencies in the second half of the film that he then found himself tearing pages of it up again. Peter Ridgeway and his pal in the bowler with the monster hangover, Digby Mitchel, are built up then dropped suddenly, while Peter Swanwick's Paul Bonnet, straight from the 'Allo 'Allo school of Frenchmen appears from nowhere but is intimately acquainted with everything that's gone on. Alex Gallier gives an enjoyable performance in a small role as a smooth ex-Nazi whom Dumetrius intends to double-cross. The conclusion, a fight to the death on the roof of a burning building, is an almost identical copy of the ending of Rogers' PAUL TEMPLE RETURNS, made almost five years earlier, including some of the same footage, dialogue and music.
This used to turn up on TV quite often and I've long had something of a soft spot for it, in spite of, or perhaps because, of its ham-fisted approach and lumbering fight scenes. It has all the flaws and pleasures of many other British second features of the period; you either like them or you don't.
Director Maclean Rogers wrote the screenplay after adapting Lindsay Hardy's 'Requiem for a Redhead' perhaps unwisely lifting whole chunks of dialogue from the book in the process. It appears from the gaps and inconsistencies in the second half of the film that he then found himself tearing pages of it up again. Peter Ridgeway and his pal in the bowler with the monster hangover, Digby Mitchel, are built up then dropped suddenly, while Peter Swanwick's Paul Bonnet, straight from the 'Allo 'Allo school of Frenchmen appears from nowhere but is intimately acquainted with everything that's gone on. Alex Gallier gives an enjoyable performance in a small role as a smooth ex-Nazi whom Dumetrius intends to double-cross. The conclusion, a fight to the death on the roof of a burning building, is an almost identical copy of the ending of Rogers' PAUL TEMPLE RETURNS, made almost five years earlier, including some of the same footage, dialogue and music.
This used to turn up on TV quite often and I've long had something of a soft spot for it, in spite of, or perhaps because, of its ham-fisted approach and lumbering fight scenes. It has all the flaws and pleasures of many other British second features of the period; you either like them or you don't.
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