Little Red Monkey ***½ (1955, Richard Conte, Rona Anderson, Russell Napier) – Classic Movie Review 3,890

‘THE IMPOSSIBLE CRIME. THRILLER OF THRILLERS’ Ken Hughes’s 1955 British black and white crime film Little Red Monkey is a complex, very nifty, and extremely enjoyable little Cold War espionage thriller. Richard Conte and Rona Anderson star. 

Co-writer/ director Ken Hughes’s 1955 British black and white crime movie Little Red Monkey is a complex, very nifty, and extremely enjoyable little Cold War espionage thriller, well above its humble Fifties British B-movie station as a product of Merton Park Studios, who produced the Edgar Wallace thrillers.

Nasty Russian spies plot to murder prominent scientists and they disguise their dirty deeds by masquerading as a friendly society to lure in their victims. A midget Russian spy controls a red monkey and with his spy colleagues is killing nuclear scientists in Britain. The story follows the story of the police as they try to trace the trail of the killers.

Richard Conte is the obligatory visiting American in a Brit film of the era as the United States State Department agent Bill Locklin, who arrives in London to oversee the transfer of fleeing Russian scientist Professor Leon Dushenko (Arnold Marlé) to the West. Russell Napier plays Superintendent John Harrington of Scotland Yard, the police inspector on the baffling case of the murders of nuclear scientists. Rona Anderson is the heroine, Julia Jackson, Harrington’s niece. And there are fine, zesty portrayals from all three.

Leonard Franks, in his only film, gets to play the key character of The Midget. Also in the cast are Colin Gordon, Sylva Langova, Donald Bisset, John King-Kelly, Bernard Rebel, John Horsley, Jane Welsh, Theodore Wilhelm, Colin Tapley, Noel Johnson, Jessica Kearns, Geoffrey Denys, Guy Deghy, Peter Godsell, Gianfranco Parolini, Ed Devereaux (in his film debut as an American sailor), Jon Farrell, George Margo, André Mikhelson and Tony Sympson.

The story is by Eric Maschwitz, with James Eastwood helping Hughes on the screenplay. It is based on the BBC TV series Little Red Monkey, written by Eric Maschwitz and produced by Bill Lyon-Shaw, which ran for six 30-minute episodes in 1953, starring Donald Houston and Honor Blackman.

Jack Jordan wrote the catchy organ-based Little Red Monkey hit theme tune.

Little Red Monkey was released on 4 April 1955. It was a hit too, along with Ken Hughes’s Confession [The Deadliest Sin], released in June 1955 (UK), proving a breakthrough for the company Merton Park Studios, which then began making more expensive productions.

It runs 71 minutes.

It was released in the US as Case of the Red Monkey.

Conte had recently made Mask of Dust [Race for Life] in England.

Little Red Monkey [The Case of the Red Monkey] is directed by Ken Hughes, runs 74 minutes, is made by Merton Park Studios, is released by Anglo-Amalgamated (UK) and Allied Artists (US), is written by Ken Hughes and James Eastwood, is shot in black and white by Josef Ambor, is produced by Alec C Snowden, is scored by Trevor Duncan, and is designed by George Haslam.

The cast are Richard Conte as Bill Locklin, Rona Anderson as Julia Jackson, Russell Napier as Superintendent John Harrington, Sylva Langova as chief spy Hilde Heller, Colin Gordon as reporter Harry Martin, Donald Bisset as Editor Harris, John King-Kelly as Spy Henchman, Bernard Rebel as Spy Henchman Vinson, Arnold Marlé as Professor Leon Dushenko, John Horsley as Detective Sergeant Gibson, Jane Welsh as Superintendent McCollum, Theodore Wilhelm as Secretary of the International Social Club, Colin Tapley as Sir Clive Raglan, Noel Johnson as Detective Sergeant Hawkins, Jessica Kearns as Airport Hostess, Geoffrey Denys as Doctor Mayhew, Gianfranco Parolini as Inspector May, Guy Deghy as Social Club Recreation Director, Peter Godsell as Tommy McCollum, Ed Devereaux as American Sailor, George Margo as American Sailor, André Mikhelson as East German Chief of Border Guards, and Tony Sympson as Cab Driver.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,890
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