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The most interesting thing about the Siege of Pinchgut are the numbers of scenes of the City of Sydney and some of its suburbs in the 1950s, which is fascinating to review nearly 60 years later. The story involves an escaped criminal (Aldo Ray), who protests his innocence, and the 3 men who have helped him escape from custody. They attempt a nighttime escape by boat through Sydney Harbour but are forced aground on Pinchgut Island - now much better known as Fort Denison - where they hold hostage the caretaker and his family. The movie has quite an interesting plot and the acting is quite good. It does fall apart a little towards the end as the plot descends into melodrama and the key question of Ray's innocence or guilt is never resolved. The interest for me as a child of the 50s in Sydney was seeing scenes of various Sydney locations as they were in my childhood. Despite being made by the British studio Ealing and containing a number of British actors, the movie was evidently made with the American market in mind. Not only was the star, Aldo Ray, speaking with an American accent but American spelling was used. In one scene a newspaper headline read "Harbor", which is the American spelling. The British and Australian spelling is "Harbour". Despite its shortcomings, most notably falling into absurdity towards the end, a weak climax and some unresolved issues, the movie held my interest throughout and I can recommend it especially to older Australians for the historical value of the geographical scenes.
Laura Seabrook
GEM was showing this early Saturday morning, and I just finished AKA Known as "Four Desperate Men" in the States, but as "The Siege of Pinchgut" here in Australia, this was shown on local TV yesterday. It was rather unusual seeing Sydney in 1959, with double decker buses, trams, and police vans with "POLICE E&R FORCE" on the side of them, and the lowish skyline of Northern Sydney.The film follows the pattern of the period which would have one or two overseas stars to help sell the film elsewhere. This time it's Aldo Ray and Carlo Giustini. It also has a solid performance by Gerry Duggan (whom I saw in a Skippy repeat last week) and Alan Tilvern as the hard-headed Superintendent Hanna. Like many films of the time, accents are either well known dialects (like Irish), "educated" (like Hanna's) or "larrikin" like the main characters brother Joey.Very much a drama of who will and won't survive, including a good portion of Sydney, with a live naval gun trained on a boat full of explosives! There's a number of sly digs on Australian society in the film, like a two-up game running in the middle of an evacuation. I also liked the reference to "the old tram depot, about to be demolished for our new Opera House" - little did they know where that'd lead! Good stuff and a look at the past.
GUENOT PHILIPPE
That's probably the most powerful little UK film I have ever seen since a long time. I am totally amazed, surprised at the most. It's entertaining from the start to the end. Aldo Ray is here wonderful, as usual. I also remember him in a similar character - well, nearly - in John Guillermin's THE DAY THEY ROBBED THE BANK OF ENGLAND. UK gave us really good films, when they wanted to. We see here a British product, but so awesome. Suspense and action, with sub characters the audience feel sympathy for, even the "bad guys"...It reminds me a novel, never put on the screen - such a shame - TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE, written by a guy named Tony Kenrick, where a bunch of hoods take New York as hostage with the help of a huge canon aboard a war ship in Manhattan harbor. In this book, they threaten the authorities to blow the skycrapper if they don't get a big bullion...Back to this film, I hope many people will watch it. It's worth.
John (opsbooks)
It's been decades since I viewed this rare B&W movie of the late 1950s. What I remember is the great photography, the police sharpshooters lined up atop the great Sydney Harbour Bridge arch (our much-loved 'coathanger') many hundreds of feet above the water and the laughable acting performance of poor old Aldo Ray. Forget the acting, though, and enjoy the action as the coppers try to take out the baddies on the Sydney Harbour fortress of Pinchgut, otherwise known as Fort Dennison.Update, 2007. I came across the movie tie-in paperback authored by George Kay which includes 8 b/w photos from the movie. Published in England by Four Square Books in 1962.
AD
