THE CLOUDED YELLOW is nothing more than a re-staging of Hitch's THE 39 STEPS, although not without merit for this thriller genre of film-making. What I particularly liked about it is how deceptive it starts off: former secret agent Trevor Howard gets a job cataloguing butterflies for some eccentric old country bumpkin, before falling in love with the man's fragile niece (the ubiquitous Jean Simmons) and getting involved in a murder plot.
The plot then becomes a chase narrative that takes in numerous locations around the UK: Newcastle, the Lake District, Liverpool, to name but three. I can't remember other British thrillers featuring so many different locations so this must have had a bigger budget than usual for the genre. The story is familiar but things don't get too convoluted, and the suspense remains strong from halfway through until the very end, which is highly satisfying.
The cast is full of familiar faces with Andre Morell as the typically gruff secret service chief and Kenneth More as the likable agent giving chase. There are cameos for the ever-present likes of Richard Wattis and Sam Kydd, Geoffrey Keen plays a cop, and Maxwell Reed (Mr Joan Collins) a suave and sinister type. Howard and Simmons aren't my favourite of stars but they acquit themselves well with the material here and THE CLOUDED YELLOW as a whole is a watchable British thriller.
The plot then becomes a chase narrative that takes in numerous locations around the UK: Newcastle, the Lake District, Liverpool, to name but three. I can't remember other British thrillers featuring so many different locations so this must have had a bigger budget than usual for the genre. The story is familiar but things don't get too convoluted, and the suspense remains strong from halfway through until the very end, which is highly satisfying.
The cast is full of familiar faces with Andre Morell as the typically gruff secret service chief and Kenneth More as the likable agent giving chase. There are cameos for the ever-present likes of Richard Wattis and Sam Kydd, Geoffrey Keen plays a cop, and Maxwell Reed (Mr Joan Collins) a suave and sinister type. Howard and Simmons aren't my favourite of stars but they acquit themselves well with the material here and THE CLOUDED YELLOW as a whole is a watchable British thriller.