gordonl56 David Harding: COUNTERSPY MEETS Scotland YARD – 1950A low rent "Red Scare" programmer from the Columbia Pictures B- film unit. This was the second film based on the radio series, COUNTERSPY. Howard St John plays David Harding, the head of a government agency out to stop enemy spy types from stealing American secrets. An agent of St John's, Harry Lauter, leaves a message for St John that he has a lead on possible red spies. Lauter is head of the secret files office at a US rocket research base. The next day, Lauter is found dead after supposedly committing suicide. St John does not buy this for a second, and assigns John Dehner to look into the matter. Dehner soon rustles up a suspect in Lauter's death. The suspect however turns out to be Scotland Yard agent, Ron Randell. Both had been following the same lead. Randell had been in town delivering a part to the rocket research lab when Lauter died. Randell had decided to look into the matter himself. St John quickly asks Randell to join the U.S. team in the hunt for the spy-slash killer. One of the main suspects is Amanda Blake, in a pre-GUNSMOKE role. She is the main secretary for the record files section. It seems that Blake suffers from regular migraines and sees a local doctor, Everett Glass, for relief. Glass, along with his nurse, June Vincent, are really commie spies. They shoot Blake up with truth serum on her visits and have her repeat from memory, all the reports on the secret rocket tests. These are taped and dispatched every week for Moscow. The "Reds" have a hideout at the local bottled water plant. They use the company trucks to pick up the tapes etc and move them. The Government types soon tumble to the "Red" set up. They lay a trap for Glass, Vincent, and his thug, John Doucette. Needless to say fists and bullets are exchanged before the Commies are captured.Not bad at all for a back-lot quickie. The director, Seymour Friedman keeps the pace moving for the whole 67 minute run. Friedman turned out a number of these bottom rung programmers. Some of the better ones are, CRIMINAL LAWYER, CHINATOWN AT MIDNIGHT, CUSTOMS AGENT and LOAN SHARK.The d of p, Phil Tannura, is also known to noir fans. He worked on several BOSTON BLACKIE and WHISTLER films as well as, CUSTOMS AGENT, HI-JACKED and NIGHT EDITOR.I'd swear John Doucette pops up in every other film or TV show from the 50's. He had hundreds of bits in film and television between 1943 and 1987. Look quick and you will see director Fred Sears in a small part. As a director, Sears cranked out over 50 films between 1949 and 1957. These include one of the best low rent sci-fi films of the era, EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS.

bkoganbing Australian actor Ron Randell becomes the Scotland Yard man in the USA helping solve a case of badly leaking government secrets at a missile testing ground in Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard. An American agent played by Harry Lauter gets killed during his investigation and the bad guys went to great lengths to make it look like a suicide.The leak is an innocent one and it's played by Gunsmoke's future Miss Kitty, Amanda Blake. How the information is being gotten out of her is the key to the whole film, but it involves our developing missile guidance systems which the Russians would like to steal.The villains are a clever and ruthless bunch and the film is from the B unit at Columbia Pictures. Doesn't have any great production values, but the story is an intriguing one and the players are all fine in their parts.

Gunn 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.

GUENOT PHILIPPE That's the first Seymour Friedman movie I comment. He was an acceptable B director. Most of his movies were made for Columbia Pictures, and not under Sam Katzman's rules, except one or two; I am not absolutely sure. Wallace Mac Donald produced most of his movies. This one is not a film noir but a spy tale, as so many in these anti red years. Nothing special in this story of enemy agents tracked by David Harding. We already saw him in a Ray Nazzaro's film : David Harding Counterspy - one of the are non western Ray ever shot !! -, and a buddy hunter from SY. An opportunity to specify cooperation between UK and US in spy hunt.Guided missile, charming secretary, dark rooms, a little talk and some good action sequences - for a B movie, I mean, nothing more. What could be expect more?Well, in short, you can waste 67 minutes on it. Try "Forgotten Noir" disc set. It's in it. With eight other ones. You won't regret.