Awesome Movie

As Good As It Gets

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I actually like these movies, they're quick and sometimes quite entertaining.Ron Randell plays a Scotland Yard inspector working in the US to help find out who is leaking government secrets at a missile testing ground to the Russians. The American agent investigating purportedly committed suicide, but further investigation proves that he was murdered and that it was set up to look like suicide.The leak is revealed to the audience fairly quickly, and she doesn't know she's a leak. It's none other than Amanda Blake in her pre-Gunsmoke "Miss Kitty" days. She and the star, Ron Randell, became engaged during this time, though they never married.Black and white, pretty good, and I could listen to Ron Randell talk forever. What a voice.

Despite the rather cheesy sounding title, "Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard" is a very good B-movie. However, it's included in a collection of film noir films, and I really don't see this as noir--more just a good old spy yarn.The film begins with a government agent supposedly committing suicide. However, he was on the verge of a breakthrough on a big case and didn't seem depressed, so the agency had its doubts as to whether he really killed himself. So, they decide to secretly exhume the body--at which point they find another person already there with the same idea! Well, this turns out to be a Scotland Yard detective with a very bad sense of direction (after all, this is the West Coast of the US). Together, this agent and the Americans try to determine who actually murdered the guy.The story turns out to involve a ring of spies who use mind-control drugs to get secrets out of agency personnel--people who have no idea that they are having secrets pumped out of them when they go to see the doctor. It's all very far-fetched but also pretty exciting--especially as the film has a dandy conclusion involving a drugged agent fighting to alert his friends.Well written (despite the odd angle about drugs) and acted, despite this film's humble origins and budget, it kept my attention and was constantly entertaining. Well worth seeing.

In the 1940s, the primary entertainment medium in the United States was broadcast radio. A number of the old-time radio (OTR) shows could be classified as drama. One was "Counterspy," started in 1942, a show about a fictional agency that combated espionage and sabotage within and outside the United States. Head of the agency was David Harding.This is one of two films based on the radio show. The first had the United States Counterspies mostly in the background. In this, David Harding takes a more active role -- even a bit more than on the radio show, where he delegated a lot of the field work to Agent Peters.The story involves enemy agents obtaining highly classified information on guided-missile technology. At the beginning of the film, one section head figures out what the leak is, but before he can relay the information to the Counterspies, he's killed. He did leave a 1950s equivalent of a voicemail before he's offed, however.After hearing the message, David Harding goes to the high-security area where the section head died, apparently from natural causes. Because of the suspicious timing of his death, he orders a covert exhumation for a full autopsy. As his people reach the cemetery after dark, they find someone else digging up the grave, and capture him (not without a fistfight).It turns out that the independent graverobber is an agent from Scotland Yard, independently wanting to get an autopsy for the same reasons Harding does, though without the clue of the voice mail. It turns out that the Scotland Yard agent is an old friend of Harding's, and they pool their efforts, though under the aegis of the U. S. Counterspies.Unlike the previous film, this one shows all sorts of tricks involving 1950s spy technology. There are radio communications, wire taps, room bugs, and all of those things that showed cleverness to the general audience of the day. Given the minimal role of the Counterspies in the first film, David Harding, Counterspy, this film appears to be trying to make up for it.Major Spoiler Alert The spies were extracting the data from the lead female in the film, a secretary with high security clearance, who was seeing a doctor for emotionally caused headaches. The Victor used a chemically augmented form of regressive hypnotherapy to retrieve the data The recording apparatus used will be completely alien to younger viewers. Fortunastely for her, before the doctor discovers the bug that the Counterspies planted, her exchange with the doctor demonstrates she's an innocent pawn, not a traitor.The latter parts of the film are pretty conventional, but the film is entertaining. A much better representation of the highly popular radii series than its predecessor.

Another low budget film from Forgotten Noir Vol. 4. This one rates a little higher than Radar Secret Service. The script is pretty basic, the directing OK and the cast a step above RSS. The story is more involving and although it's more a spy film than film noir it has many of the elements of film noir. Dark streets, a fast moving pace, a narrative beginning and those fine old cars. Amanda Blake tops a decent cast and the espionage adds a tension to the film which satisfies. Being almost addicted to Film Noir I have to admit that these films, as cheesy as they may appear, are very entertaining! The DVD set Forgotten Noir Vol. 4 has surprisingly good prints and the movies though just over an hour in length are fulfilling.