Out In The 1950s Brit Noir Night- Bond Of Fear- A Film Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
Bond of Fear, starring Dermot Walsh, Jane Barrett, John
Colinos, directed by Henry Cass, 1956
No question, if only based on the work of the late Sir
Alfred Hitchcock, that the British film industry had the thriller genre down
pat. The more generic film noir scene though, as witnessed in the film under
review, Henry Cass’s Bond of Fear, is
more problematic. It is not that the film lacked merit but it certainly did not
grip the way a noir should and the way that the plot-line could have been used
to create a more successful effort.
Like a lot of families in America in the 1950s, the rising
middle class families anyway, the British up and coming middle class families sought
vacation times out of the cities. Of course the 1950s were the golden age of
dragging the family out on vacation on the cheap, relative cheap, via the
trailer (called a caravan in Britain) and that travelling device is central to
the action here.
A hard-working father (played by Dermot Walsh) and a stay at
home Mom (played by Jane Barrett) decide to travel by caravan (remember that’s
a trailer) to France with their young son and daughter to see the sights and
bond as a family. Problem is that as fate would have it there was a stone- cold
killer (played by Johns Colinos) on the loose in the neighborhood who sought
refuge in that very caravan in order to escape to parts unknown. When the young
son discovers the killer in the caravan all hell breaks loose as the son is
taken hostage by the killer to insure that Pa does his bidding.
After a series of almost comic antics concerning avoiding
police dragnets, feigning child sickness, caravan break-down, etc. there is a
final showdown between Pa and the killer for the life of his son at the Dover
ship crossing. Naturally Pa bests the killer, the son gains new-found respect for
Pa and the family will go off on their merry way-bonded against fear. And all
of this good feeling stuff, the antics, the musical score backing up the
action, and being hard-pressed to hate the villain who just seems to be one of
those misunderstood boy popular in the 1950s in America and England is what
does this one in as noir. Sorry 
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