trimmerb1234 Somewhere at the back of my mind was the memory of a film where a speeding car attempts to cross Tower Bridge just as it was opening - and fails. And here it is. It's quite a spectacular scene, making best use of one of London's best known landmarks. That the car is a Rolls Royce adds to the thrills (budgets in 1954 didn't run to crashing a modern Rolls Royce though). It forms the climax of an exciting car chase - and the demise of the villain. The inspiration may well have been the true life story not of a car jumping the bridge but on the 30th December 1952 a red bus full of passengers. By sheer good luck the other side opened more slowly and thus was slightly lower causing the bus to drop some feet but at least get across.Like IMDb reviews, critics have very mixed opinions on this film. Halliwell, the one time doyenne critic and ITV film buyer dismissed it as "typical British thick-ear". but writer, film critic and author of "A Guide to the Best in Cinema Thrills", John Howard Reid is very complimentary about it in nearly all departments (assuming that the IMDb reviewer above is one and the same person?). I agree with but defer to his much more expert and detailed judgement. Jack Warner again has a good role as a detective - quite different to his ageing avuncular flatfoot PC George Dixon on TV.A 6.5 out of 10

JohnHowardReid Director: HAROLD FRENCH. Original screenplay: Sydney Box. Film editor: Anne V. Coates. Photography: C. Pennington-Richards. Art director: John Howell. Costumes designed by Joan Ellacott. Furs: Calman Links Ltd. Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway. Music composed and directed by Lambert Williamson. 2nd unit director and production manager: Douglas Peirce (sic). 2nd unit photography: Peter Hennessy. Camera operator: Reginald Morris. Production controller for Pinewood Studios: Arthur Alcott. Assistant director: Ernest Morris. Sound editor: Graeme Hamilton. Sound recording: C.C. Stevens and Gordon K. McCallum. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: Sydney Box. Executive producer: Earl St John. Made with the co-operation of Her Majesty's Customs & Excise, the City and Metropolitan Police Forces, the Railkways Executive, the Port of London Authority, the Corporation of the City of London, and Siebe Gorman & Co. Ltd (suppliers of underwater equipment). Interiors filmed at Pinewood Studios. A Sydney Box Production for London Independent Producers, presented by J. Arthur Rank.Copyright 1954 by General Film Distributors Ltd. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release through Fine Arts Films: June 1956. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 31 May 1954. Australian release through British Empire Films: 24 February 1956. Sydney opening at the Embassy. 7,700 feet. 85 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Customs man on the trail of a drug shipment meets a beautiful model.COMMENT: Admirably tense and exciting with much skillful lensing on actual locations, "Forbidden Cargo" still comes across as an engrossing and suspenseful thriller. The performances are all that could be desired. The whole cast from stars to bit players turn in highly ingratiating yet solidly naturalistic characterizations. Box's taut script, with its shrewdly observed insights into the dialogue and motivations of real people, certainly helps. I could start by commending Jack Warner's cleverly etched Chief Investigator who is given a dynamic but agreeably bantering manner, progress through Terence Morgan's caddishly charming heavy, and end up with Hal Osmond's perkily friendly yet defensively officious luggage counterman. Production values are remarkably high. Credits, including Harold French's tense, creatively forceful direction, Anne Coates' imaginatively rapid film editing, and the attractively moody camera- work by Pennington-Richards, are outstanding in all departments.

malcolmgsw This is an entertaining smuggling yarn with an excellent cast.Nigel Patrick is good in the lead role ably supported by Jack Warner,then at the height of his Dixon of Dock Green fame.The chief villain is Terence Morgan assisted by American,Theodore Bikel.Even smaller roles are well cast.The inimitable plays the aristocratic birdwatching,and is hilarious as usual.Eric Pohlman is a gang member who wants to spill the beans to get a shorter sentence.There is a lot of cars dashing around dark London streets.Strangely the package of drugs is supposed to be at Victoria Station but it is clearly Waterloo.Shame that this film now seems to be virtually forgotten.

dj_kennett This movie is kind of fun. If you imagined that working from Customs was boring and uninteresting, this will change your mind. Kenyon the Customs inspector travels to the South of France, consorts with beautiful women, stays in luxury motels, and generally lives a very high life.It's not a bad story about a brother and sister drug smuggling ring that is busted open my modest men from Customs in tweed jackets and narrow ties.