Blind Date (1959)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Joseph Losey

Writers:

Ben Barzman (writer)
Leigh Howard (novel)

Release Date:

29 April 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

A motion picture brilliantly, mysteriously different... as man is to woman!

Plot:

Dutch painter Jan-Van Rooyer (Hardy Kruger)hurries to keep a rendezvous with Jacquleine Cousteau (Micheline Presle)...

Plot Keywords:

Sergeant | Murder | Based On Novel

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

Hardy Krüger	...	Jan-Van Rooyer
Stanley Baker	...	Insp. Morgan
Micheline Presle	...	Jacqueline Cousteau
John Van Eyssen	...	Insp. Westover
Gordon Jackson	...	Sergeant
Robert Flemyng	...	Sir Brian Lewis
Jack MacGowran	...	Postman
Redmond Phillips	...	Police doctor
George Roubicek	...	Police constable
Lee Montague	...	Sgt. Farrow

Also Known As:

Chance Meeting (USA)

Runtime:

95 min | Germany:90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, England, UK

Company:

Sydney Box Associates

Soundtrack:

I'm A Lonely Man

A pleasing early Losey

It can sometimes be interesting to study the early work of directors who were later to emerge as important figures in cinema. Some show little indication of what is to come (Carol Reed's "Bank Holiday " for instance) while with others the fingerprints are all there (Hitchcock's "The Lodger" and David Lynch's "Eraserhead"). Joseph Losey falls somewhere between these two extremes. An early work such as "Blind Date" has a competence and clearheaded sense of narrative flow that place it on a higher level than most B-style thrillers to emerge from British studios in the '50's but there is little of the original stamp that was to mark his later work such as "The Servant", "The Go-between" and "Accident". These films provide fascinating commentaries that an outsider from the USA brought to bear on the British class system. There is a little in "Blind Date" about the social hierarchy within the British police force, but this is peripheral to Losey's main task of presenting a neat little thriller well. He keeps the tension going nicely to begin with, with a young Dutch artist visiting a flat where he expects to find a woman he has been having a liaison with, only to find himself soon embroiled with the police. The script has a neat way of evading what is going on until some way into the film. Some of the flashbacks go on for rather too long and are somewhat weakened by a rather wooden performance by Micheline Presle as the woman of mystery. Hardy Kruger, on the other hand, as the young Dutchman is excellent. We really identify with his frustration at finding himself in a situation that is beyond his comprehension and control. As the main detective Stanley Baker plays cat and mouse with his customary skill. "Blind Date" is in so sense an important or significant film, but the fact that it was competently made by a director who was later to produce some outstanding works of British cinema makes it worth a look. There are two other good reasons for watching - photography by Christopher Challis and music by Richard Rodney Bennett - both considerable artists in their respective fields.