TOM CONWAY AS DUKE MARTIN BRITISH CRIME DOUBLE-FEATURE

Title: BREAKAWAY Year: 1956 Rating: ***1/2

BREAKAWAY: Former FALCON Tom Conway in the second Tom 'Duke' Martin private eye flicks made in Britain during the film noir 1950's, with the right balance of gunplay, mystery and polite traipsing from various locations... from mansions to airports... gathering clues wherein sidekick Michael Balfour's overweight, ex-crook Barney is the better fighter during the rare times where that kind of thing happens... yet the villain and his henchman (including a young John Colicos) still mean business, having kidnapped beautiful Honor Blackman's beautiful sister, who might be carrying a scientist's secret that everyone's after...

Nothing like the tough guy American Humphrey Bogart vehicles from the previous decade, BREAKAWAY is lightweight British yet still desperately urgent, keeping both the dignified snoop and audience on edge... despite knowing almost exactly who the villains are, and why. 

John Colicos in BREAKAWAY

Tom Conway in BREAKAWAY

John Colicos in BREAKAWAY with Tom Conway and Larry Taylor

Tom Conway in BREAKAWAY with Honor Blackman

Tom Conway in BREAKAWAY with Michael Balfour

Honor Blackman in BREAKAWAY with Michael Balfour

Honor Blackman in BREAKAWAY with Tom Conway

Brian Worth and Paddy Webster in BREAKAWAY

From BREAKAWAY

From BREAKAWAY

Title: BARBADOS QUEST aka Murder on Approval Year: 1955 Rating: ***

While the sequel BREAKAWAY is more action-packed, going from a brutal kidnapping to Tom Conway's dapper gumshoe Tom 'Duke' Martin searching for various clues, BARBADOS QUEST is more like reading a book... or watching the reading of a book... with a passive plot about a phony high-priced stamp, called the Barbados Overprint, hence the main title that's also known by a more pulpy, mainstream-sounding MURDER ON APPROVAL...

With violence more an afterthought as this original programmer smoothly sets up the characters, where Michael Balfour's comic-relief sidekick Barney is not quite yet a former criminal, but has stolen the fancy car he and his boss drive around in... while the ingenue is sultry, low-voiced Delphi Lawrence,  initially hands-on and helpful, like a partner, until an enigmatic fatale twist (where her persona's more fitting): plus a snooping Scotland Yard inspector while the bad guys are played by returning actors Brian Worth and another thug role for John Colicos... in what seems more like a TV-movie but a nice, tight and intriguing one: with BREAKAWAY its more roving big-screen-style followup.

Delphi Lawrence in Barbados Quest

Tom Conway and Michael Balfour in Barbados Quest

Tom Conway and Michael Balfour in Barbados Quest with Brian Worth & Delphi Lawrence

Tom Conway and Michael Balfour in Barbados Quest

Tom Conway in Barbados Quest

Tom Conway and John Colicos in Barbados Quest

John Colicos and Tom Conway in Barbados Quest

From Barbados Quest