The Hostage (1956)
In this political thriller, set within an unnamed country, revolutionaries try to prevent their leader's execution by kidnapping the president's daughter. A brave hostage pilot, breaks out and heroically saves the girl as the revolutionary leader is killed.
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THE HOSTAGE is truly a film of two halves. It was apparently based on an original BBC production called A PLACE OF EXECUTION about civil unrest in a made-up South American country due to the impending execution of a revolutionary leader. Unfortunately, the movement has allies in the UK, and they decide to kidnap the visiting daughter of the country's president and threaten to execute her unless their leader is released.The opening of this film is very poor and muddled. It looks cheap, it feels cheap, and I was already looking at my watch about ten minutes in. The film suffers from a dated and staged feel and has poorly written characters too. Ron Randell's hero-for-hire is a case in point; although the Australian actor convinces as an American, he never gets any character development other than being a generic hero. The best of the bunch is the fresh-faced Mary Parker, whose youth and vigour gives her warmth as the kidnapped girl.Things change around the halfway mark. The film becomes more focused on action and indeed action proceeds to dominate the rest of the picture. It becomes a race against time thriller and a pretty good one at that. The set-piece involving the burning house is very well staged and there are some great fisticuffs and showdowns with the criminal gang. One of the villainous henchmen is played by an actor with a glass eye which gives him a very sinister appearance. Just a pity, really, that the first half of the film wasn't this much fun.
I have to say that i always assumed that the star of this underwhelming film,Ron Randell,was American.So i was greatly surprised to learn through his biographical details on this website that he was an Aussie.In so many films including this one he had an American accent.Now after all these years i discover that he was born in Sydney.Maybe the makers of this film decided that it would be cheaper to hire an actor who could give a passable impression of an American accent than to hire the real thing.Anyway this film it has to be said is truly dreadful.The script is truly awful and the denouement has to be seen to be believed.If you are in to truly bad films then you can catch this on the Movies4Men satellite channel.