The Weapon (1956) User Reviews

Everyone Wants It

[boblipton · 6/10 · 13 February 2022]

Some children are playing in one of the old bombed out sites around London when 10-year old John Whiteley discovers a gun. The other children want to see it, but he holds onto it, and shoots another of the children. Terrified, he runs away. Soon, Scotland Yard inspector Herbert Marshall has called in US Army officer Steve Cochran to see if this has anything to do with a war time murder. Whiteley's mother, Lizabeth Scott, is worried. So is the man who used to gun to kill a man.

It's a nicely timed story that gradually grows in speed and tension under the direction of directors Val Guest and Hal E. Chester. Never more than a programmer, it offers a nice portrait of a youngster who thinks that he is in a lot of trouble.

Do I Hear A Zither In The Ruins?

[museumofdave · 7/10 · 7 August 2020]

This little second string effort from Republic Films was cunningly photographed in London after the Blitz, and there are echoes of The Third Man in much of the atmospherics, as a kid in the run from a crime he did not commit hides at night in crumbling ruins near the Thames, and hungry during the day, hires on for a ham sandwich in a warehouse gearing up for day traffic. The kid flushes out an actual murderer, and the two of them get wrapped up with the two Hollywood actors used for marquee bait, Lizabeth Scott and Steven Cochran, who do their best to make something of not much, with a romance budding in the ruins. Both actors manage well enough, though in their past each could be electrifying; poor Herbert Marshall walks through an uninspiring bit as an English inspector, and the screen does light up with the fascinating and lively appearance of Nicole Maurey as a "professional hostess." If you don't expect a lot of suspense built on logic and honest tension, but are happy with a tour of London at Night and some time with Hollywood Stars going through their paces. this is not a bad 78 minutes at the movies.

An interesting mystery follows a dramatic first ten minutes.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 8 June 2023]

Whilst out playing with his friends, young Erik Jenner finds a gun and accidentally shoots another boy, believing he's killed the young lad, he goes on the run. Erik has inadvertently found a weapon, that's connected to another murder.

This was a very watchable and enjoyable 80 or so minutes, the opening ten minutes were terrific, very shocking, and whilst the rest of the film doesn't quite have the same, it's still very interesting.

The best element, the atmosphere, it looks fantastic, some really nice camera work too, Val Guest truly did elevate the film.

You think you know where the story is heading, but of course there's more going on than meets the eye, the presence of Mark Andrews, and his reason for being there changes the whole story.

The acting is a mixed bag, the young Jon Whiteley is excellent as Erik, considering his age he offered up a lot more than several of his seniors here, Herbert Marshall, Lizabeth Scott and George Cole were all good, if I'm totally honest I found Steve Cochran a little wooden.

6/10.

Bring on Herbert Marshall

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 13 December 2013]

"The Weapon" (1956) is a mixed blessing. It does present some marvelous action sequences. On the other hand, Steve Cochran makes a pretty charmless hero and his co-star, Lizabeth Scott, looks surprisingly dowdy. It's left to Nicole Maurey to present all the feminine allure, but while she appears so mightily attractive, she makes little headway against some of the tritest dialogue in the movie. In fact, the script regales audiences with too much uninteresting talk to sustain our consistent interest, yet it leaves vital plot points unclarified – even at the close! Unfortunately, Val Guest's direction does little to disguise the banal dialogue stretches, but once the camera moves away from Mr. Cochran, Guest's handling perks up considerably, with very impressive use of natural locations – so overwhelming in fact is the location material that it puts the movie firmly back into the "A"-grade class. It would seem that Guest realized Cochran and Scott were not only distinctly second string, but they were doing nothing for the film. Maybe that's why Herbert Marshall was employed in a very small, inconsequential role? It was no doubt thought that his name would give the cast credits a touch of much-needed luster.

Bang! you're dead!

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 3 February 2020]

Steve Cochran 's investigation is never that much exciting ;his wooden acting does not help. On the other hand ,Lizabeth Scott ,one of the film noir most glamorous girls ,second only to Bacall and Grahame in this field, cast against type ,is excellent in her role of an English widow housewife (whose husband died with his weapon in his hand) .She's deeply moving ,after the visit to the morgue when she burst into tears, feeling for this mom whose child is there ,lying on cold stone; and forgetting ,even if just for a while ,that her own brat is still in jeopardy .

It echoes to Vivienne's pessimistic view of life ; it's very rare that a supporting character is given the opportunity to express such despair .French Nicole Maurey ,who worked with Robert Bresson but never really became a star in her native country , as an user has already pointed out ,plays the part which was tailor made for Scott , and she pulls it off efficiently .

Much more than Cochran's investigation , the boy's wandering in the streets of london remains credible at least till the time where all the walls are covered with posters .John Whiteley's questioning look works wonder here,even if "the weapon" does not equal previous great efforts such as Lang's "moonfleet " and the extraordinary "hunted " (which paired him with Dirk Bogarde whom he met again in a watered down version of Cronin's "the Spanish gardener").His playing always rings true ;like in "hunted" he flees from the adult world :after all , his crime would never have happened if man had not invented war; it's no coincidence if his mates choose to play war to grab the famous weapon.

There are plot holes (mainly concerning the villain)but there's never a dull moment in this short thriller.Besides,there's a welcome sense of humor : the brat asleep under a pile of newspapers on which his photograph hits the headlines.

A boy with a weapon

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 14 February 2022]

As far as late cycle noir goes, this one is certainly engrossing. It was one of Lizabeth Scott's last films, filmed on location in England with Steve Cochran and Herbert Marshall as her costars. Miss Scott plays the mother of a pre-teen boy (Jon Whiteley) who has been hanging out in some ruins with a group of friends. These ruins are what remains of old buildings that had been bombed by the Nazis during air raids a decade earlier and have not yet been completely cleared off.

We are told that young Erik Jenner (Whiteley) is the product of a relationship between a kind British man and an American woman (Scott). They were married during the war, but the boy's father was killed a short time later. Elsa Jenner stayed in England to raise her son and has a minimum wage job at a diner. At the beginning of the story, Erik who is what you'd call a latchkey child, is in the ruins with his pals when he discovers a gun lodged in a block of concrete. He is able to pull the gun out, but his friends want to take it from him.

During a skirmish that ensues, Erik accidentally fires the gun and one of the other boys is shot. As a group of adults rush over, Erik takes off with the gun. Soon a police chief (Marshall) and a fellow detective who is associated with the military (Cochran) are paying Mrs. Jenner a visit. They reveal that the gun Erik found was used in the murder of a soldier at the end of the war. They need to get the gun back. But Mrs. Jenner doesn't care about the gun, she only wants her son back. Due to their conflicting priorities, she gets off on the wrong foot with Detective Andrews.

Meanwhile, there is an interesting subplot involving a local man Joshua Henry (George Cole). He notifies the police that he saw Erik who is still missing. But unbeknownst to Mrs. Jenner and the detective, this helpful citizen is really the man responsible for the murder of the soldier. It was his weapon that Erik found. He wants to get the gun back before the police catch up with Erik, so he is using the boy's mother to this end.

Related to this subplot is the presence of a nightclub singer (Nicole Maurey) who could provide testimony against the killer. Not surprisingly she will be bumped off, and she has a very shocking death scene that occurs while the detective is questioning her.

There is a great deal of suspense in this 77-minute film. A lot of on-location filming through the streets of London gives the drama added appeal. In addition to the sequences filmed at the site of the old ruins, there are other scenes shot outdoors. Almost all of the scenes with Erik are done away from a movie studio, since he remains on the run for nearly the whole story.

Jon Whiteley had made a film called HUNTED (1952) with Dirk Bogarde in which he and Mr. Bogarde were also on the run, so in some ways this is a natural follow-up for him.

Whiteley earned an honorary juvenile Oscar for his work in another film, and he certainly was one of the cinema's most technically polished young performers in the 1950s. There is nothing cloying or disingenuous about him on screen, and his work as Erik hits all the right notes. The scene where he is reunited with his mother is beautifully played, and the car crash scene that follows is unexpected and excitingly staged.

An intense thriller with a little boy in a lot of trouble.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 2 May 2022]

It's not just the law that wants him, it's his mother Lizabeth Scott, and a killer searching for a gun utilized from an unsolved murder found by young Jon Whiteley to accidentally shoot another boy during a street game in the sight of buildings being prepared to be demolished. Police investigator Mark Stevens aides Scott in trying to find her little boy, and when a mysterious man, George Cole calls them to indicate an encounter with the kid, it's obvious that he's hiding something. This leads to a hunt for Whiteley who finds out that everybody is looking for him, and he thinks he's in big trouble even though the kid he accidentally shot is going to recover. When Scott finally locates her son, she takes Cole with her, but that leads to further danger for everyone involved and a return to the site of the shooting, up into the depths of the ramshackled buildings for a showdown between Stevens and the killer.

A very intense thriller is aided by terrific London location footage obviously filmed in the surrounding area of buildings being torn down. The film keeps you gripped from the very beginning, and is certainly a warning to parents to warn their kids never to play with a gun, especially one that they found that may or may not be a toy. A disturbing element is the fact that Scott promises her son or replacement gun, as well as a twist concerning her that is never fully resolved in the conclusion. That twist was so sudden and came out of nowhere that it left me shocked, but an open-end and concerning it was perplexing. Still a very good movie, reminding me of the 1949 film "The Window" as well as other thrillers of the area that happened to be set in other construction sites or buildings to be torn down. Veteran actor Herbert Marshall is very good as the British officer involved, while French actress Nicole Maurey has a mesmerizing small role as a woman questioned who obviously suffers from grave depression, claiming that she's the walking dead and then makes a play for Stevens out of sympathy which leads to another shocking occurrence. Definitely a unique 50's thriller.

Not a bad little B-Movie.

[MOscarbradley · 6/10 · 11 July 2022]

The most interesting thing about this Val Guest directed thriller is its use of actual London locations, something of a rarity at the time, and which gives it that touch of realism missing in the script. Overall, "The Weapon" isn't a bad little B-Movie, about a boy, (Jon Whiteley, Britain's favourite child star until Haley Mills came along), who finds a gun in some ruins and accidently shoots another boy with it. Of course that means young Whitely takes off while said gun had been used in a murder ten years before and it's up to Steve Cochran, Herbert Marshall and seemingly not very concerned mother Lizabeth Scott to find the boy before the killer does as well as catch the killer at the same time. It's a decent enough plot and Guest handles it more than competently. Unfortunately the performances let it down making this more of a guilty pleasure rather than a contender but it's still a pleasure and worth seeing.

Ridiculous storyline, but 1950s-era London is brought to life very well

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 29 August 2016]

THE WEAPON is an unusually-plotted British crime film in which the bombed-out ruins of a post-war London play a large part in the proceedings. The tale is about a group of street urchins playing in said ruins who discover a loaded gun. One of them accidentally shoots a friend and goes on the run, which is when the plot kicks in for real.

The main problem with this film is the unbelievability of the plot. The villain character seems shoehorned into the storyline and never would have been in danger from the police had he simply kept out of things. In addition, the kid who goes on the run would have been out of danger had he simply handed himself in to the police early on. Thus credibility is strained throughout and the film sometimes feel mildly ridiculous as the plot plays out.

The further shoehorning into the story of an American military figure to act as detective is a blatant attempt to get an American lead into the thing, although Steve Cochran is saddled with a very dull character. The inexplicably American mother, Lizabeth Scott, is much better and somebody you end up warming to as the story progresses. George Cole is cast against type and should have stuck to the mild comedy he was far more convincing in. It was a pleasure to see old-timer Herbert Marshall (FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT) in support but he only appears in a couple of scenes.

The main actor is former Oscar winner Jon Whiteley as the precocious child who causes so much trouble. I quite liked him although others may find him a bit irritating. Whiteley has nowadays forgotten about his early acting career and become a museum curator. The exemplary direction is by Val Guest, who brings an atmospheric London to life, teeming with the working class, and the locations have never looked so authentic and lived-in.

Not One Of Guests better Efforts

[malcolmgsw · 4/10 · 18 December 2013]

The problem with this thriller is that it relies to much on coincidences and unexplained plot developments.It is never explained why the boy's mother is American,we must assume that she is there fro American distributors.Why does George Cole become involved when,as the murderer he has managed to keep his head down for the last 10 years.In the middle of the film we have the biggest contrivance of the lot.Steve Cochran is supposed to be meeting Nicole Maurey at her flat.He is late,who is there but George Cole who murders her.We know there is a connection between them but what is it?Cole cosies up to Scott and just happens to be at her home when the boy phones.This leads to the final chase and Cole's death from a fall in a fight with Cochrane.Herbert Marshall is in there giving Cochrane 24 hours to sort things out,which he tries to do with all guns blazing.the most interesting part of this film is the location work.It shows area of the city of London still showing the after effects of the blitz some 11 years after the end of the war.

Steve Cochran in Val Guest's Post War Noir

[TheFearmakers · 9/10 · 22 April 2021]

Post War British a decade past, hence the genuine bombed-out ruins where a pistol (THE WEAPON) is buried from an unsolved wartime murder, and local little boy Jon Whiteley finds it, accidentally shoots a bully, and runs like hell...

Morphing Val Guest's thriller from war to noir as Whiteley's Erik hits the dark shadowy streets while worried American widow/mom Lizabeth Scott, in her penultimate still-young big screen role, hitting the right emotional marks, is charmed by shady Brit George Cole while putting up with ultra-serious military investigator Steve Cochran...

And Cole, as the sole heavy, has the most fun here, getting to both sneakily and violently interact with side-characters (while charming Scott), including scene-stealing French starlet Nicole Maurey as a tough yet wispy showgirl just past her prime, who eventually shares an emotional turned sizzling/sexy scene with Cochran...

Meanwhile, in the thankless leading role, the handsome WHITE HEAT actor (who slowly warms up to Noir veteran Scott) plays THE WEAPON like a throwback gumshoe more than an MP, and for the sparse run-time, director Val Guest throws everything into the picture including sudden deaths, chases, rooftop fights and race-against-time suspense.

An acceptable time waster

[searchanddestroy-1 · 19 May 2008]

A routine show for me. A Val Guest film starring two American actors, such were so many British movies from this time - see Terence Fisher's ones. But no real surprises. The flat yarn about a young boy who finds a weapon among the ruins of a building in London and who runs away with it. It appears that this gun was used ten years ago for a murder.

You stay awake all along this little story, but I am sure that you'll have forgotten all this two years later. Nothing exceptional. The ending is easily foreseeable.

But it's always a pleasure to watch Lizabeth - the Throat - Scott and the likes of Steve Cochran and Herbert Marshall. Even in a British film. And val Guest is a pretty good artisan.

Most enjoyable.

[plan99 · 8/10 · 15 March 2023]

Always interesting to see a city in the 1950s in films most commonly London of course in UK films. The lack of traffic compared to now is amazing. Still plenty of bomb sites ten years on from the end of the war. An interesting plot with a ring of truth about it as many weapons kept after the war must have been around at this time. George Cole was great as the baddie as he played spivs a lot early in his career so had experience of this type of character. A time capsule of a film which is a very interesting watch and can be recommended but probably not for youngsters, ie those below 50 years old.