Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

blanche-2 Robert Preston had an interesting career. He started out as a movie actor, a star but not a big one, and drifted into television in its early days. Always a presence on Broadway, he achieved superstardom for his portrayal of Harold Hill in The Music Man, and went on to do the movie as well as other big films and Broadway shows, including originating the role of Henry II in The Lion in Winter.Here, he stars in a Hammer film from 1952, Cloudburst, based on a play by Leo Marks. Preston plays John Graham, a cryptographer and someone who worked in the Resistance. His wife Carol is played by Elizabeth Sellars. The two are very much in love, and she saved John's life during the war while, under torture, refusing to talk. They are expecting their first child.As a result of her experience with the Gestapo, Carol has a marked limp, and she falls in the road. A car runs her over and doesn't stop. The driver is a murder suspect trying to get out of town. Graham decides to get revenge and formulates a plan.There's nothing unusual about the story, except in this case, the story focuses in on the character of Graham, his calmness and determination while facing that he has lost everything and cares about nothing but revenge on the driver and his passenger, a woman who told him to keep driving.Colin Tapley plays Inspector Davi, and he does an excellent job.Worth seeing I think for Preston.The author, Leo Marks, kind of a film Forrest Gump. was a cryptographer during the war and gave the poem The Life that I Have to spy Violette Szabo to use as a code. Her story was made into a film in 1958 called "Carve Her Name is Pride," a beautiful film. After leaving cryptography, Marks began to write movies and plays, most notably the film Peeping Tom. His father owned the bookshop featured in 84 Charing Cross Road, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft.

secondtake Cloudburst (1951)A great title, and a curious, odd little film that is commanding at times and well filmed throughout. And it has some real surprises, so good drama.The big surprise is near the beginning and I don't want to give anything away, but there is a deeply romantic core to the entire movie. This is most of all about a man who loves his wife. Both man and wife are involved in the British top secret code breaking operation of WWII, and the movie begins in fact with a tour of the code-breaking room. But then it shifts to our two leads, the man a hale and handsome Robert Preston, the woman a cute and slightly mysterious Elizabeth Sellars. They're going to have a baby, life looks perfect ahead.But things take a sudden turn, and Preston is off on a solitary manhunt. His lonely quest and his isolation from his friends make this a kind of British film noir, a post-war malaise hanging over the film (it's set in 1946). There is a more than slight improbability to some of the revenge he wreaks (the victims seem a hair willing to just stand there and take it) but if you accept this as just part of the drama, the rest of the film in all its small details is really great, really compelling.In a way, the movie is a metaphor for the whole war, both on the grand scale (hating the Germans) and on a personal level (hating particular crimes, specific deaths). And if retribution occurs, a higher order of justice is inserted, too. And honor, or a sense of doing the right thing based on conscience. Preston pulls off all sides of this dilemma well. He's warm and he's cold, he's smart and he's flawed. And in the end he's sentimental, too. The final reading of the code, once it's broken, is a touching triumph.And what about the character Sellars plays? "My hatred would overwhelm me like a cloudburst," she says, explaining not only the title, but the theme of the movie, retribution from the gut. She inhabits the film very much, but from the opposite side of things than Sellars. As you'll see. The film does move slowly at times. The war is over, that kind of high drama is past, but in its smaller goals it never stutters, it never fails to know what it wants and how to get there.

PudgyPandaMan It appears not many have seen this film as evidenced by the few reviews. I was surprised that it was as good as it was given it seems few have seen it.Produced by Hammer Films of England, this is fairly light fare for them as they became primarily producers of horror films. Even still, there are some macabre elements to this film (several characters being run over by cars).Preston, as John Graham, is quite believable in his portrayal of an ex-commando for the Resistance, who is indebted to his wife, played very genuinely by Elizabeth Sellars, who also worked alongside him in the Resistance. He credits her for saving his life for refusing to divulge secrets under torture. She limps visibly as a result. They are expecting their 1st child. Tragically one evening she is the victim of a hit and run by murder suspects fleeing from capture. Graham recalls his wife saying (upon hearing of a murder) that her anger would hound the murderer like a cloudburst until she could repay what they had done. So he begins a systematic plan to get revenge on the 2 people who killed his wife.I thought Sellars had quite a beautiful and interesting face - especially her cheekbones. Its a shame she was killed off so early in the film.I think the writers did a good job of evolving the story. They don't reveal all about the Graham's past together and how she got the limp, saved his life, etc. until later. It keeps you intrigued.This is a classic revenge tale. But in light of his past as commando in the Resistance it makes sense. I was surprised that you never really see him rage, but it could be his training in special forces to just "get the job done". I question the likelihood that he would be stupid enough to leave his coded note behind at one of the crime scenes, unless that is part of his "I have nothing to live for" mentality and he is hoping to get caught. Certainly his training should have otherwise prevented this so perhaps it was intentional.All in all, I found this to be very suspenseful, although a little dark in places.

boblipton This is a tightly-constructed mystery of the pre-Black Mask style, in which the solving of the crime -- here a potential serial killer -- must be tracked down, and the only clear clue is a bit of paper at the scene of the crime with a cypher code.The movie tries to add psychological drama by turning it from a "Whoodunnit" to a "Howcatchem" a style of mystery familiar to all fans of the old "Columbo" TV movie series, with the added punch that it is told from the viewpoint of the killer -- in this case, Robert Preston, who is an American who is somehow running a code-breaking division for the British government. Motivations are established early, but the whole thing is rendered a bit flat by the lack of details that surround the personnel. The result is a well-told story that is not, alas, particularly gripping.