Man Bait

Hammer Films certainly upgraded thanks to their new deal with the American distribution system of Lippert Pictures. They snatched-up Hollywood leading man George Brent to fall victim of dangerous young blond Diana Dors, who gets her biggest role yet, and takes it for all it's worth! And you can sense Brents gradually sink in trouble of sleazy blackmail and worse. Surprisingly compelling. Not to mention polished, especially when you consider Hammer's other films up to that point.

I can't think of a film w/ a worse title & marketing. Even the description on this site is misleading. The title & ad copy will fail to draw in the kind of people who would very much like the low-key1950's crime drama this film actually is while enticing heathens like myself looking for salacious 1950's exploitation which it certainly is not. Once you get past that, this is well made on all counts w/ a solid plot & characters & fairly unpredictable narrative. & yes, all the actors can act.

Not as salacious as the title (or the poster) would imply. Dors plays more of a naive young ingénue, manipulated by the dastardly Peter Reynolds, rather than the femme fatale I was expecting, but even so, she's still the highlight in this decent thriller-cum-noir-lite. There are one or two scenes that stand out, including a fun Se7en-style "don't open the box!" sequence and an exciting finale, but nothing really spectacular.

Rather tepid. Dors brings a certain pouty splendor to her debut, and Reynolds' character has to be one of the screen's alltime weaseliest villains. Brent's acting becomes so naturalistic (especially later, when he's on the lam) that we almost seem to be watching him rehearse his lines while they're in the middle of blocking. Once again, ludicrously out-of-place music for the titles sequence.