Missing, Believed Lost - The Star Reporter
From Missing, Believed Lost, BFI Publishing, 1992
Another crime drama from a Philip MacDonald story, in which a newspaper
journalist (Harold French) works as a chauffeur to an attractive blonde
society woman (Isla Bevan, in her screen debut) in order to provide
himself with material for a feature article. He witnesses an elaborate
smash-and-grab raid in Bond Street in which a world-famous diamond
owned by the woman's father is stolen. Hefollows the thieves to their
den and recovers the jewel after a roof-top struggle which ends with the
villain plunging to his death
Powell hired a hand-held camera for £8 and personally shot footage
of the Queen Mary docking at Southampton to cut into the scene
of the girl's father returning from America, which made the film look
rather more lavishly budgeted that it actually was.
The Star Reporter received some exceptionally good reviews.
From Today's Cinema: 'Exciting adaptation of story by Philip
MacDonald dealing with robbery, blackmail and murder. Charming
romantic element links breathless sequence of thrilling incident.
Cleverly directed on the lines of swift action, snappy dialogue
and varied settings. General "thick-ear" atmosphere with admirably
staged smash-and-grab raid, cold-blooded murder, sinister plotting
and startling fire-escape finale developed with strongly
emphasised suspense values.'
More significantly, the film critic of the London Evening News,
A. Jympson Harman, declared: 'At the end of a long and not very
inspiring day of seeing new films, I saw a little picture Star
Reporter which jolted my tired brain into renewed enthusiasm.
Star Reporter packs into three-quarters of an hour as much
story as most films that last an hour and a half, cost £30,000
and take six weeks to make. It is absolutely without trimmings and
tells an exciting crook story with a smoothness of direction and
a crispness of acting and cutting which would be a credit to the
the most ambitious picture.'
Michael Powell later recalled: 'Star Reporter ... was fun
and I was not ashamed of it. Harold French was a real pro. He
understood comedy timing and I learned from him every day.
Star Reporter played as the bottom half of the bill with
Frank Capra's Platinum Blonde. I felt really complimented
when one of the critics wrote that Star Reporter scarcely
had the polish of Platinum Blonde. My film cost £3,700,
the Columbia film cost $600,000.'
Leading man Harold French later became adirector himself - of
Quiet Weekend (1946), My Brother Jonathan (1947)
and many other features.
This film is "Missing, Believed Lost", please check all achives
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