He is in this as a deckhand.He normally plays somewhat eccentric characters.He adds some lighter touches to this rather full thriller starting a lacklustre Forrest Tucker.Made by a pre horror Hammer more than likely as part of their deal with Lippert.The film starts slowly and crawls to a full stop.
7 Reviews
Plodding
Leofwine_draca24 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
BREAK IN THE CIRCLE is another plodding thriller from the studio that would become world-renowned as Hammer Films later in the decade. This Michael Carreras-produced effort was directed by the usually reliable Val Guest, and features imported American star Forrest Tucker as a ship's captain who is tasked with rescuing a top scientist from East Germany. The usual low-rent spy shenanigans ensue, with chases and fights with Russian agents, impersonators, and some low key romance. The story typically offers some interesting performances from those in support such as Marne Maitland, Reginald Beckwith, Guy Middleton and Eric Pohlmann, but Tucker looks bored and despite the outdoorsy locations this feels low budget and drawn out to the nth degree.
Forgettable cheapy
VanheesBenoit12 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Being one of those "completists" who try to find every political thriller or spy movie that has been made during the Cold War, it is inevitable that every now and then, I buy a bad one. It took me some time to find a seller on Ioffer who could provide me with a copy of acceptable quality of "Break in the circle". Unfortunately enough it turned out to be rather a C-movie, based, on quite a poor storyline, extremely forgettable dialogs and with absolutely no spark between the two main characters.
Capt. Skip Morgan (Forrest Tucker), an English adventurer possesses a boat, which he's not always strictly using for completely innocent trips. One day he's contacted by a "Major Hobart", who's task it is to arranges a meeting between Morgan and the rich German Baron Keller. The businesslike baron turns out to have an adventurous job for Morgan: to go to Hamburg, find out about the whereabouts of a professor called Pal Kudnic, and to smuggle him to England. His offer is accompanied by a generous sum of money. Keller also tells a phony story about why he goes to great lengths to get Kudnic to England. Morgan isn't really the man to ask a lot of questions, but the word "action" however sounds like music in his ears. He more or less kidnaps Lisa (Eva Bartok), the girl he's in love with. The feelings aren't mutual at that time, and furthermore, Lisa is working for the police. Together with shipmate Dusty, the trio crosses the Chanel and arrive in Hamburg. It soon turns out a group of Russian thugs are also interested in Kudnic.
The big finale in Germany is a not particularly spectacular chase between one of the very first types of helicopters and the truck in which Morgan transports Kudnic to Hamburg. After the helicopter hit some high voltage wires, the truck can continue without any trouble to Hamburg. During the trip, Kudnic tells Morgan he's a chemist, specialized in polymers. Once back in the UK, first Lisa, than Baron Keller try to overpower Morgan at gunpoint, to make sure his little investment also delivers the gains he was hoping for: the knowledge stored in the head of Prof. Kudnic. In the end, the police however has the last word.
Believe me, it's really a bleak, stupid storyline, not at all entertaining. The characters aren't very likable: the captain is rather shouting all the time in stead of just talking, and a wooden Lisa clearly needed a kiss before becoming a little bit more human. In a word,forget about this movie ! Don't be fooled by the magic words "Hammer Studio", and try in stead to find the 20 times better movie "High Treason" from 1951. That one should be in the collection of every one who likes good, entertaining spy movies and political thrillers !
Capt. Skip Morgan (Forrest Tucker), an English adventurer possesses a boat, which he's not always strictly using for completely innocent trips. One day he's contacted by a "Major Hobart", who's task it is to arranges a meeting between Morgan and the rich German Baron Keller. The businesslike baron turns out to have an adventurous job for Morgan: to go to Hamburg, find out about the whereabouts of a professor called Pal Kudnic, and to smuggle him to England. His offer is accompanied by a generous sum of money. Keller also tells a phony story about why he goes to great lengths to get Kudnic to England. Morgan isn't really the man to ask a lot of questions, but the word "action" however sounds like music in his ears. He more or less kidnaps Lisa (Eva Bartok), the girl he's in love with. The feelings aren't mutual at that time, and furthermore, Lisa is working for the police. Together with shipmate Dusty, the trio crosses the Chanel and arrive in Hamburg. It soon turns out a group of Russian thugs are also interested in Kudnic.
The big finale in Germany is a not particularly spectacular chase between one of the very first types of helicopters and the truck in which Morgan transports Kudnic to Hamburg. After the helicopter hit some high voltage wires, the truck can continue without any trouble to Hamburg. During the trip, Kudnic tells Morgan he's a chemist, specialized in polymers. Once back in the UK, first Lisa, than Baron Keller try to overpower Morgan at gunpoint, to make sure his little investment also delivers the gains he was hoping for: the knowledge stored in the head of Prof. Kudnic. In the end, the police however has the last word.
Believe me, it's really a bleak, stupid storyline, not at all entertaining. The characters aren't very likable: the captain is rather shouting all the time in stead of just talking, and a wooden Lisa clearly needed a kiss before becoming a little bit more human. In a word,forget about this movie ! Don't be fooled by the magic words "Hammer Studio", and try in stead to find the 20 times better movie "High Treason" from 1951. That one should be in the collection of every one who likes good, entertaining spy movies and political thrillers !
Very enjoyable
david-42531 October 2002
A+ camera work. C- film.
mark.waltz26 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Sometimes cheapness works, and in the case of an obviously handheld camera frequently following characters around (usually late at night in this film), the angles that are crested adds to the mood of intrigue that the director is trying to set up. It's an effort to get a valuable scientist out from behind the wall, using American boat captain Forrest Tucker to do the job.
Through the strength of this camera work and the ingenuity behind some great ideas, the camera gets in to some difficult places that it otherwise wouldn't, and technically the film has loads of brilliance. But it's frequently underdeveloped and far too quiet, and the character development and plot suffers as a result. Eva Bartok is a plus along side Tucker helping him out, but I didn't find this memorable overall.
Through the strength of this camera work and the ingenuity behind some great ideas, the camera gets in to some difficult places that it otherwise wouldn't, and technically the film has loads of brilliance. But it's frequently underdeveloped and far too quiet, and the character development and plot suffers as a result. Eva Bartok is a plus along side Tucker helping him out, but I didn't find this memorable overall.
Anything For A Buck
boblipton25 January 2024
Eva Bartok hires skipper Forrest Tucker to smuggle scientist Arnold Marlé, As the movie progresses, various murky forces with thugs, helicopters, and police at its disposal tries to stop him.
When this was made, the forces at work were apparent and obvious to its audience; so obvious that this could easily be interpreted as paranoid anti-Communist propaganda. Nothing of the sort is ever mentioned in the movie. This would seem to make it vaguer and duller, and at the same time more universal. Indeed, some of the accompanying comment notes " Set against a war-torn backdrop, it explores the indomitable human spirit and the relentless pursuit of liberty." This seems at odds with Eric Pohlmann's willingness to get his neck broken once he's promised $5,000.
Over all, I find its lack of specificity unengaging, its use of the same block of docklands to represent several different ports cheap rather than betaking of any sort of universality. With Marius Goring and Guy Middleton.
When this was made, the forces at work were apparent and obvious to its audience; so obvious that this could easily be interpreted as paranoid anti-Communist propaganda. Nothing of the sort is ever mentioned in the movie. This would seem to make it vaguer and duller, and at the same time more universal. Indeed, some of the accompanying comment notes " Set against a war-torn backdrop, it explores the indomitable human spirit and the relentless pursuit of liberty." This seems at odds with Eric Pohlmann's willingness to get his neck broken once he's promised $5,000.
Over all, I find its lack of specificity unengaging, its use of the same block of docklands to represent several different ports cheap rather than betaking of any sort of universality. With Marius Goring and Guy Middleton.
Hamburg-er
southdavid8 February 2024
I am staggeringly behind with the "House of Hammer" podcast at the moment, so I'm only now watching this film that they did back in June of last year. "Break in the Circle" is not exactly a noir-y thriller like most Hammer films at the time, but it's a post-war spy adventure type film, which saw them actually travel outside the UK for filming.
Captain Skip Morgan (Forrest Tucker) is tasked with taking a trip to Hamburg and expatriating a Polish scientist, Pal Kudnic (Arnold Marle) back to the UK. Kudnic's friend, Baron Keller (Marius Goring) will pay him handsomely to do so. Upon learning that his would be girlfriend, Lisa (Eve Bartok) has been informing on his dealings to Scotland Yard, Morgan tricks her into joining him on the trip. They arrive at Hamburg and to the rendezvous point, but all is not as it seems.
With a lot of these Hammer films, I've tended to find that my most common reaction was boredom and drifting onto my phone. This one though kept my interest and that's keeping in mind that I was watching a print of the film that is on Youtube and neither the sound nor picture quality were what you would hope for. I was impressed by the budget spent on this one, as not only did they relocate to Hamburg for at least some of the shooting time, but also some scenes involved the use of a helicopter - and not stock footage of a helicopter as it would have been previously, but one hired for the production!
Though I watched it all and didn't get distracted, I would say that film could be improved upon. It's quite long, most Hammer films at the time were nearer the hour mark and this is twenty-five or so minutes longer than that. I appreciate that Eva Bartok is probably the most famous performer in the film, the only one I'd previously heard of anyway, but I don't know why her characters exists and is in the film as much as she is, other than so the film has a woman in it. It was never entirely clear to me why Scotland Yard were keeping tabs on Morgan in the first place, I can only assume there was some postwar smuggling going on.
Let's not go overboard, I wouldn't recommend the film to anyone not actively listening to the podcast, but compared to some of the others I've watched, this was reasonable.
Captain Skip Morgan (Forrest Tucker) is tasked with taking a trip to Hamburg and expatriating a Polish scientist, Pal Kudnic (Arnold Marle) back to the UK. Kudnic's friend, Baron Keller (Marius Goring) will pay him handsomely to do so. Upon learning that his would be girlfriend, Lisa (Eve Bartok) has been informing on his dealings to Scotland Yard, Morgan tricks her into joining him on the trip. They arrive at Hamburg and to the rendezvous point, but all is not as it seems.
With a lot of these Hammer films, I've tended to find that my most common reaction was boredom and drifting onto my phone. This one though kept my interest and that's keeping in mind that I was watching a print of the film that is on Youtube and neither the sound nor picture quality were what you would hope for. I was impressed by the budget spent on this one, as not only did they relocate to Hamburg for at least some of the shooting time, but also some scenes involved the use of a helicopter - and not stock footage of a helicopter as it would have been previously, but one hired for the production!
Though I watched it all and didn't get distracted, I would say that film could be improved upon. It's quite long, most Hammer films at the time were nearer the hour mark and this is twenty-five or so minutes longer than that. I appreciate that Eva Bartok is probably the most famous performer in the film, the only one I'd previously heard of anyway, but I don't know why her characters exists and is in the film as much as she is, other than so the film has a woman in it. It was never entirely clear to me why Scotland Yard were keeping tabs on Morgan in the first place, I can only assume there was some postwar smuggling going on.
Let's not go overboard, I wouldn't recommend the film to anyone not actively listening to the podcast, but compared to some of the others I've watched, this was reasonable.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
