Burdened by the conventions of its era, "The Girl Of Scotland Yard" does not deliver upon the promise of its title. "The Girl" (a game but rather bland Karen Morley) does not get to do much except get captured by the villains. Most of the screen time goes to the male lead, Robert Baldwin, who is even blander (according to IMDb, his film career essentially lasted only five years, and you can see why). Eduardo Cianelli is better as the villain, but he can't rescue the film from the clutches of boredom. There is an ambitious aerial action climax, however it is hard to get too excited about it when it's so obvious that the actors never left the ground and much of the footage is actually stock footage from other sources. *1/2 out of 4.
4 Reviews
"Sometimes waiting is an agony, occasionally it's a pleasure"
hwg1957-102-26570420 May 2023
Warning: Spoilers
A female Scotland Yard agent going after a supervillain who has a death ray sounds exciting but this film isn't really. The titular character, Linda Beech, doesn't get to do much, the film to it's detriment highlighting the actions of the typically annoying reporter Derrick Holt, played boringly by Robert Baldwin. The film does have sneering Eduardo Ciannelli as the villain Franz Jorg (an exiled Englishman in disguise) and the ever charming Karen Morley as Linda to its advantage however and the film is only worth seeing for them. The film makes topical use of stock footage of the coronation of George VI in 1937.
A Movie That Did No One's Career Much Good
boblipton11 May 2023
Things have been going boom in England, so Scotland Yard calls in their ace agent, Karen Morley, to investigate. She crosses paths with reporter Robert Baldwin, who's in London to cover the coronation, but taking a couple of days off to look into the mysterious disappearance of Agnes Anderson's husband. This involves him sneaking into a party, listening to Milly Monti sing, then going off for a rendezvous in a waxworks. When a corpse turns up, the police try to arrest him, but he escapes by doing a convincing imitation of a dummy. Miss Morley and Baldwin join forces, and soon they chance upon Eduardo Ciannelli and his death ray.
Robert Vignola's last movie is a dumb programmer with two miscast leads. We are supposed to believe that Miss Morley, with her corn-fed Iowa accent, is veddy English, and as for Baldwin, he falls into that category of actor who looks good in evening wear with his hands in his pockets, but speaks woodenly..... or perhaps I should write "waxenly". As one commenter on the site I watched it on noted, "I once lived next door to Bud Flanagan. I didn't know that he was in any films." With Katharine Alexander, Jon Hall, Leonid Kinsky, Dennis O'Keefe, and Gino Corrado, but not Bud Flanagan.
Robert Vignola's last movie is a dumb programmer with two miscast leads. We are supposed to believe that Miss Morley, with her corn-fed Iowa accent, is veddy English, and as for Baldwin, he falls into that category of actor who looks good in evening wear with his hands in his pockets, but speaks woodenly..... or perhaps I should write "waxenly". As one commenter on the site I watched it on noted, "I once lived next door to Bud Flanagan. I didn't know that he was in any films." With Katharine Alexander, Jon Hall, Leonid Kinsky, Dennis O'Keefe, and Gino Corrado, but not Bud Flanagan.
not worth the hour to see it
dbborroughs29 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Not particularly good mystery concerning a reporter who is assigned to investigate the mysterious destruction of war munitions, ships and bases. During the course of his wandering he runs into the title character.
The film is a mess. It runs an hour fails to fully fill even half the running time with a real plot. The first fifteen minutes sets everything in motion with our hero and then the film drops it for useless nonsense. The film then after about 20 minutes where not much happens the film suddenly jumps toward it's conclusion. There is no explanations, no set up it just jumps, dropping our hero and picking up with the titled character.
In all honesty the film might have been something if the film had managed to link it all together, but as it stands it feels like they grafted two or three films together but never really connected them into a real plot with real motivation- everything is simply a given.
A mess
The film is a mess. It runs an hour fails to fully fill even half the running time with a real plot. The first fifteen minutes sets everything in motion with our hero and then the film drops it for useless nonsense. The film then after about 20 minutes where not much happens the film suddenly jumps toward it's conclusion. There is no explanations, no set up it just jumps, dropping our hero and picking up with the titled character.
In all honesty the film might have been something if the film had managed to link it all together, but as it stands it feels like they grafted two or three films together but never really connected them into a real plot with real motivation- everything is simply a given.
A mess
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