Leofwine_draca
MARK OF THE PHOENIX is a stodgy little effort from the reliably poor Butcher's Film Service. This one tries for a Cold War vibe but ends up being poorly-plotted and rather uninteresting, with long stretches where nothing happens. The cast of rogues are hardly engaging and the storyline, about a new metal alloy which everybody's trying to get their hands on, is particularly dull.The film features Anton Diffring and Roger Delgado as a couple of detectives on the hunt for a cigarette case, and there are various murders and fights between principal characters along the way. However, the direction is constantly pedestrian - Maclean Rogers did a lot better with some of the Paul Temple films earlier in his career - and the script from CARRY ON writer Norman Hudis fails to find any sympathetic characters in the cast. It's nice to see Diffring and Delgado playing the good guys for a change, but they have very little screen time at the end of the day.
malcolmgsw
I rather lost the rather complicated plot on this one.Maybe it was the unusual sight of Anton Differing playing a good cop.however the first scene rather set my teeth on edge.A scientist is shot in the chest from about 10 feet,the killer places the gun in his hand,and for some strange reason the police assume that he committed suicide.This undermined the whole film for me.From then on the film had so many twists i reminded me of a coiled python.However at no time did it show any sign of life.Lots of location shooting but to no real effect.A really poor effort,and rather a waste of time.The title is rather misleading.
1bilbo
There is actually a good story line here. Obviously the film had a zero budget and it shows but it is well worth the watch. There are numerous flaws but there is a great deal of attention to detail - I particularly liked the scenes in the shop when the lighter case was moulded and then electroplated. As an engineer it all looked pretty accurate to me. Also the genuine coldness of the murderers who took the life of a lonely scientist. I also found the story really good - the dissident who swapped hotel rooms was an interesting character.Not the easiest film to get hold of but if you watch it in context of it's age and low finance it is quite good.
dbborroughs
There are times when a movie surprises even those who thought they were beyond being shocked. It doesn't happen often but every now and again even I can be shocked at how stupid a script is. Forgive me for sounding so egotistical but this movie is so incredibly stupid that it makes you feel like you could take over a world filled with dummies like those portrayed in this film.The plot is simple, some bad guys kill a scientist working on a new metal, making it look like a suicide. They then have a jeweler make it into a cigarette case for easy smuggling. Enter an American Jewel smuggler...and this is absolutely one of the worst plotted movies I've ever seen. The detectives ignore clues and just stand around (they can't find what the dead scientist was working on but we saw the liquid metal dripping on the floor, the man is shot in the chest from across the room yet the gun is found in his hand by his head, ever hear of powder burns?). Everyone does what is the least likely thing that anyone in a similar situation would do. It boggles the mind at how stupid these people are. You want to scream at the screen because these people are so dense and stupid. Its a truly frustrating exercise. I made it half way into this turkey before I had to shut it off lest I die of apoplexy. Mind bogglingly bad-and coming from me thats saying a great deal since I love bad movies, just not ones this bad.
AD
