The House of the Seven Hawks ** (1959, Robert Taylor, Nicole Maurey, Linda Christian, Donald Wolfit David Kossoff) – Classic Movie Review 10,978

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1959 B-movie mystery thriller The House of the Seven Hawks stars Robert Taylor, Nicole Maurey, and Linda Christian. It is written by Jo Eisinger, shot in black and white by Ted Scaife, produced by David E Rose and scored by Clifton Parker.

MGM sent contract star Robert Taylor to their Borehamwood studios in England for this routine Victor Canning adventure yarn, based on his novel The House of the Seven Flies, published in 1952, about an American ship’s captain called John Nordley (Taylor) mixed up in the chase after Nazi sunken treasure. He is arrested by the Dutch police Inspector Van Der Stoor (Donald Wolfit) when he gets mixed up with criminals.

The plot is solid, and the entertaining performances from the British character players Donald Wolfit, David Kossoff and Eric Pohlmann help to give it a needed lift, but the film is creaky and the star past his prime, and there is not enough action, humour, tension or suspense to sustain it successfully. There is a lot of tatty-looking studio work and back projection, but some of it was shot in the Netherlands.

It was Taylor’s final film under his 25-year contract with MGM, which is no doubt why he looks so grim.

The budget was a low $535,000, but according to MGM records, the film earned $415,000 in the US and Canada plus $650,000 elsewhere, for a total of $1,065,000, but somehow that resulted in a loss of $20,000.

Also in the cast are Philo Hauser, Guy Deghy, Andre Van Gyseghem, Gerard Heinz, Paul Hardtmuth, Lily Kann, Richard Shaw, Leslie Weston and Peter Welch.

The House of the Seven Hawks runs 92 minutes, is made by Coronado Productions and released by MGM.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,978

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