The Blue Parrot

Direction by numbers doesn't help nor does an absence of shadow or flat focus. Aims at noir without the noir. The scene where the cast are madly winking across a 'sleazy' nightclub with no patrons and a band designed for earplugs is especially excruciating. Ballard Berkley and John LeMesurier try hard with a nuance free script and Ferdy Maine tries hard to look sinister. The film's origins with journalism are painfully obvious in a totally linear account; no sub plots, no character development, no humorous asides. The one joke is the name of the night club, 'The Blue Parrot' which is, of course, the name of Signor Ugatti's nightclub in Casablanca- maybe they should have borrowed the set designer, the extras, the scriptwriters from that film. A Sidney Greenstreet lookalike might have helped. Whole thing could have been phoned in.