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The Blue Parrot
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Wikipedia article
'The Blue Parrot' is a low budget 1953 British crime film directed by John Harlow and starring Dermot Walsh, Jacqueline Hill, Ballard Berkeley, Richard Pearson, and John Le Mesurier. The film was produced by Stanley Haynes for Act Films Ltd.Action! Fifty Years in the Life of a Union. Published: 1983 (UK). Publisher: ACTT. . ACT Films Limited - Ralph Bond p81 (producer listed as Stanley Haynes) Jacqueline Hill later became well known for playing Barbara, one of the original companions of BBC TV's 'Doctor Who'. Ballard Berkeley found fame in later life playing Major Gowen in 'Fawlty Towers'.
British crime reporter Percy Hoskins provided the story.
Premise
Soho night club the Blue Parrot is at the centre of murder and racketeering investigations, and the police go undercover.
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
*'Radio Times' wrote, "Dermot Walsh does his best with some lacklustre material, and John Le Mesurier turns up in a supporting slot, but there's little else here to recommend."
*Britmovie wrote, "The Blue Parrot is a middling b-movie thriller set against the post-war backdrop of spivs, black-marketeers, pawnbrokers and raincoat detectives."
*Sky Movies noted, "a real treat for connoisseurs of British B-movies of the post-war decade...Complete with such familiar elements of the genre as the raincoated detective (Dermot Walsh in a part that sounds as though it may have originally been written for a visiting American star) and settings at a nightclub and at Scotland Yard. Ferdy Mayne is on hand, as he was so often in these films, to supply smooth Continental villainy, and the film's major surprise lies in the casting of John Le Mesurier as the nightclub's shady owner."
References
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