The Blue Parrot

The Blue Parrot
The Blue Parrot
	Act Films Ltd
Distributed by	Monarch Film Corporation (UK)
Release date	October 1953 (UK);
Running time	69 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Blue Parrot is a low budget 1953 British

Act Films Ltd.^[2] The screenplay is by Alan MacKinnon from a story by British crime reporter Percy Hoskins

.

Plot

Small-time crook Rocks Owen receives a mysterious phone call at the Blue Parrot

night club

and is later found murdered. Bob Herrick, a New York detective in London to learn about Scotland Yard's methods, investigates, and policewoman Maureen Maguire goes undercover at the club posing as a hostess.

Cast

Dermot Walsh as Bob Herrick
Jacqueline Hill as Maureen Maguire
Ballard Berkeley as Superintendent Chester
June Ashley as Gloria
Richard Pearson as "Quinny"
Ferdy Mayne as Stevens
Victor Lucas as Rocks Owen
Edwin Richfield as Taps Campelli
John Le Mesurier as Henry Carson
Arthur Rigby as Charlie
Valerie White as Eva West
Diane Watts as Carla

Critical reception

In a contemporary review

Kine Weekly wrote: "Pleasantly intriguing, if modest, whodunnit. It illustrates the big part played by a young American detective in the apprehension of a Soho killer, and ends with a bang. The red herrings are neatly handled by the competent cast. The comedy relief is apt and the dénouement suspenseful. Feminine appeal slight yet piquant."^[3]

The Radio Times said: "Dermot Walsh does his best with lacklustre material, and John Le Mesurier turns up in a supporting slot, but there's little else to recommend it."^[4]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan wrote: ''Efficient thriller with a bit more sting in the action than usual.''^[5]

Chibnall and McFarlane in The British 'B' Film write: "There is little to distinguish this from numerous other urban-set thrillers, but its pacey editing (Robert Hill) and cast of reliable character players carries one over the less probable plot maneuvers."^[6]

References

^ "The Blue Parrot". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
ISBN 0 9508993 0 5
. ACT Films Limited - Ralph Bond p81 (producer listed as Stanley Haynes)

Kine Weekly
. 439 (2417): 18. 15 April 1948.
ISBN 9780992936440
.

ISBN 0-7134-1874-5
.

ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6
.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Blue Parrot.

The Blue Parrot at
IMDb

The Blue Parrot at ReelStreets

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Films directed by John Harlow

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Spellbound (1941)

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Meet Sexton Blake! (1945)

The Echo Murders (1945)

Appointment with Crime (1946)

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The Blue Parrot (1953)

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Delayed Action (1954)

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[1] "The Blue Parrot". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 8 November 2023.

[2] ISBN 0 9508993 0 5
. ACT Films Limited - Ralph Bond p81 (producer listed as Stanley Haynes)

[3] Kine Weekly
. 439 (2417): 18. 15 April 1948.

[4] ISBN 9780992936440
.

[5] ISBN 0-7134-1874-5
.

[6] ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6
.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]