mark.waltz Russian intrigue has a famous Russian scientist in hiding in London, protected by secret agents as Russian agents scheme to find him and kill him. A red monkey is seen escaping from the scene of a murder, and if that doesn't give foreign agents an alibi, nothing else can. American agent Richard Conte comes to London to get involved in the solving of the case and gets himself more than he bargained for with the presence of the lovely Rona Anderson. It's pretty dry, with the organ and piano score making it seem like a TV drama rather than big screen. This is a rather slow cold war melodrama that takes some patience to get into, although the monkey fingerprints are very cute. While the new wave style of filmmaking worked for novice directors like Kubrick and Aldrich, some experimental works seemed just odd. Moments of comedy add to a frantic finale that shows this to be a film with multiple personalities.

robert-temple-1 This is a mid-fifties British B picture (aka LITTLE RED MONKEY, the original title, which is on the DVD) for which they brought in the American Richard Conte as a visiting FBI agent, to fetch a Russian scientist defector to America. The script was co-written by Ken Hughes (1922-2001), who also directed it, and whom I knew rather well. Ken was never a highbrow when it came to literature, though his taste in art was good because of his obsession with the paintings of Delvaux, of which he had a gigantic example on his wall above his sofa. (It is now in a national museum somewhere.) I must say, Richard Conte makes just about the least sentimental lover in the history of the cinema. The way he treats the girl who falls in love with him is so rude and inconsiderate that one wonders about his orientation. Never mind. The British police and secret service bungle spectacularly throughout this tale, making mistake after mistake, taking no basic safety or security precautions, and the attempt to look after a major defector is portrayed as an utter farce. A bit too close to real life. It reminds me of the dealings between MI6 and Gaddafi. What is there about the word 'incompetence' that the British security experts do not understand? They presumably have their noses buried too deep in dodgy dossiers, of which there has been a spectacular example recently, something to do with the number 70,000. Hahaha. Well here they go again in this film, letting everybody get killed, with the almost equally hapless Yank finally saving them, more or less by chance. The monkey of the title really exists and climbs up buildings and opens windows for entry by humans to commit dastardly deeds. There are other elements revealed at the end which I shall duly keep top secret, something which no one in the film seems to know the meaning of.

gordonl56 LITTLE RED MONKEY – 1955Someone is bumping off nuclear scientists in the UK, and the Reds are of course the prime suspects. Reports of witnesses at the scenes report seeing a small monkey of all things. The Police and MI-5 write this off to bad eyesight or a bit much to drink.A defecting Soviet atomic scientist, Albert Marle, is whisked out of East Berlin and hidden in a hotel in London under Police guard. US agent Richard Conte arrives to protect Marle on his next stage of his flight to the US. Bad weather delays the flight for 24 hours.Conte decides that a spot of sightseeing with hotel clerk, Rona Anderson is in order. Anderson is the niece of MI-5 type, Russell Napier, who is in charge of security. A few drinks and a pleasant walk through the park with Anderson, is soon arranged.The Reds of course have been busy as beavers trying to discover the location of the defector, Marle. They plan on giving him a going away gift of a bullet or two in the back of the head. The two chief Red types, Bernard Rebel (complete with that all telling commie goatee) and Sylva Langova plot their next move.While all this is going on, newspaperman, Colin Gordon, is starting to be a royal pain in the rear to the government types. He has published that the government has a defector hidden somewhere in London. The Reds decide to use the man for their own cause and feed him some info to publish. They hope that the Secret Service bunch will get upset and give away the hiding place.The Reds do get a clue and go for a hit but end up killing a plainclothes Police officer instead. Conte and MI-5 man, Napier, decide to use the death as cover and announce that defector Marle was killed. They then move the man to another location till the weather clears and they can fly out.The ploy with the dead copper however fails. The Reds kidnap Conte and Miss Anderson when they step out for a drink. They whisk them to a secret hideout for a spot of light chatting. This involves a large Red with anti-social behaviour problems, soundly beating Conte around the face and body. The Eastern Bloc types are hoping Conte will talk. After a half hour or so, and no luck on the violence front, they decide to change tact. They blindfold Conte and drive him off and dump him on the street with a message. Turn over the defector or the girl, Anderson, will die a most gruesome death.Needless to say the government has no intention of making the swap. Conte, after a few quick repairs from a doctor, straps on his holster and gun. He wants a bit of pay back. He first visits newsman Gordon for a talk. He soon convinces Gordon to help. He has a possible lead as to where the Reds might be.They hit the place and are soon embroiled in a full blown gun battle with the Commies. Newsman Gordon goes down in a hail of lead as do a few of the Reds. Conte manages to free Miss Anderson just as MI-5 and the Police come bursting through the doors.They then rush to where the defector Marle is hidden. They do the nick of time thing again and dispose of a Soviet midget assassin. Yes a midget. Conte is now rushed to the airport with defector Marle to catch the US Air Force flight to Washington. Conte and Anderson blow kisses at each other as he leaves.Not bad at all for a lower end budgeted spy thriller. The film was directed by veteran UK noir man, Ken Hughes. Writer, producer and director Hughes' work includes, WIDE BOY, BLACK 13, THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE, CONFESSION, JOE MACBETH, WICKED AS THEY COME, THE LONG HAUL, THE SMALL WORLD OF SAMMY LEE. He also helmed the big budget features, CROMWELL and CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG.

mike-272 This very British film was a "B" picture given headlines because of the title song which was a massive hit in both the Uk and in the States.Only read below if you want to know about The little red monkey.The little red monkey was in fact a very very small/tiny adult russian spy who because of his size could enter small areas thought safe agains five foot plus size humans.He was only called "The Midget" in the film and he was played by Leonard franks.This was the basis of the movie.If you ever get to watch this film, do not expect too much and you will not be disappionted.The music is freely on line to download from various sites in the UK. Just type in "the little red monkey" into a search engine and up will pop lots of links.