Dick Barton - Geheimagent (1948) Online

Based on the classic British Radio series this clunker of a movie is a series of bad choices (which they corrected for the next two movies), and one of the worst films Hammer Studios ever produced.

The plot of this film has to do with smuggling and Nazi spies in and around a small English Village. The villain is a German agent posing, as a Swedish scientist, complete with German accent. He has secret tunnels and hideouts in the village and is plotting great evil. He is aided by various people in the village all of whom are suspicious looking in the extreme. Good guy Dick Barton is sent to the town by his bosses, under cover of taking a vacation, to the village to find out whats going on.

This movie is bad, really bad. The film was aimed at kids and they dumb the whole movie down with over the top performances and really bad humor. Frankly this is more a misfiring comedy rather than the exciting action adventure of the radio. The direction is at best stiff with the actors not so much directed as arranged in tableaux, upon which the camera locks. It reminded me of a movie from the advent of the movies.

I'm dumb founded at this films awfulness.

I've given the movie a 2 instead of a 1 because there a few fleeting moments where the movie actually works, but they are high points in a very low movie and nothing you need concern yourself with. It would probably be best if you just skipped this movie and watched either of the other two Dick Barton films that followed.

I am not old enough to remember the original radio series.So i don't know if it was done tongue in cheek.this film seems to have an element of that.However the film is let down by a silly plot awful acting and almost invisible production values.It is probably one of the worst British films that i have ever seen.I haven't yet watched the other 2 in the series but they have to be an improvement on this load of tripe.It is a mercy for most of the actors that the credits only list a handful of the leading actors.Usually i find no difficulty in writing the mandatory 10 lines that are required for a review but the sheer awfulness of this film has left my usual nimble fingers frozen in sheer disbelief.

This is one of the worst films to watch as an adult, and as an adult who appreciates Kane, Orphee, Rashomon, Godfather I/II, Donnie Darko etc to name just a handful. You have to try and switch your Cynic Button to Standby for 66 minutes and enjoy it for what it was. I agree it is a laughable and witless film - but it was made for British children and especially the post-WW2 teenagers listening to the weekly BBC radio series - who weren't so demanding as we all have become. Although apparently the BBC were initially surprised that children were listening in their millions, and eventually decided to "tone" the gratuitous sex and mindless violence in DB down. Which of course by todays high standards was on the level of Sesame Street, but losing even that meant the end as the millions turned off. Could you watch old serials such as Nyoka nowadays without laughing - could a serious film buff in the 40's?

A populist subject for the film - a gang of Nazi smugglers operating in quaint English fishing village, plotting the downfall of all around them. Don Stannard was excellent for the ... unbelievably manly role of Dick Barton - although since Red Dwarf I can't quite get Arnold Rimmer out of my head. And current Tory Party Boss David Cameron too for that matter! Snowy and Jock were both there as DB's sidekicks, played with gusto if not finesse. What I find when I let go is that this sometimes atmospheric film is an enjoyable romp (semi-silent, too!) from proto-Hammer, which strains credulity at every turn but keeps you watching like all Fantasies should do. The whole production was cheap and amateurish which is reflected in the acting. Marvellously refreshing after seeing Requiem For A Dream!

Therefore I don't think Plan 9's Title is in jeopardy, except maybe from Blazing Saddles - time will tell!

I was nine years old when Dick Barton finally left the Light Programme (rough though not exact equivalent now Radio 2) in 1950 to make way for The Archers. In its short life it made a huge impression on the wartime and post-war generation of kids (and many adults)and it's difficult now to express what a thrill it was in those radio obsessed and almost TVless days to anticipate seeing on the screen what had previously been left to the imagination.

And therein lies a good part of the problem. We all had our mental visions of Dick, Snowy and Jock and the chances of their screen counterparts matching these was virtually nil. For my money Don Stannard, who tragically died in a car crash at 33 in 1949 just after the third and final Barton film, made a good and physically acceptable Dick Barton, though he could never match Noel Johnson's distinctive radio voice, and George Ford a good Snowy (or was it Snowey - sources differ?). More on Jock Anderson, the third of the trio, below.

I cannot but agree with the comments of other reviewers on the film. It is awful. The radio series may have been very much tongue in cheek, though we kids never thought so at the time, but the film takes itself seriously while having no plausible plot, some dreadful acting and directing and almost non-existent continuity. At one point Dick breaks into a building and somehow manages to change his shirt while he is in there!

So to Jock Anderson, played by Jack Shaw in what according to IMDb was his only film. In my view this is far and away its main fault. On radio Jock was a young, agile and athletic man, a reliable lieutenant to "Mr" Barton, and who had served in a Highland regiment during the war. Here he is unforgivably portrayed as a stage Scotsman, much in the Harry Lauder mould,in full tartan gear and clearly cast for comic relief. At one point he is in a stretch of water and there is a close up of a tadpole wriggling on his bald head. Laugh!? I thought I'd never start. It was a thoughtless and stupid insult to Barton fans. I can only assume that the Director had no working knowledge of the radio series or, if he had, unaccountably chose to ignore it. Perhaps you should do the same with the film.