The House of the Seven Hawks (1959)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Good start, but then it gets ruined

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This is a good 'rainy afternoon film'. It is harmless, entertaining and well made. It was directed by old pro Richard Thorpe. Robert Taylor plays an independent sailboat owner based on the southern coast of England (with the script explaining why he is an American) who 'takes people where they want to go'. One day a mysterious man with a briefcase who calls himself Mr. Anselm books his boat for a coastal tour. After setting out, he says he wants instead to go to a port in the Netherlands. Taylor is not supposed to do foreign trips without permission from his harbour master, but as he is offered a substantial amount of money by the man (whose briefcase is stuffed with cash), he agrees. The man says he is Dutch and hence does not normally get seasick, but on this occasion he says he does not feel well at all, and goes to lie down in his cabin. Later when Taylor takes him a cup of tea, he finds the man lying dead on his bed. We later discover that he has been murdered by someone tampering with his insulin supply before boarding, as he was a diabetic. Taylor uses the little key hanging round the man's neck on a chain to open the briefcase, and takes the cash owing to him, leaving the rest intact and shutting the briefcase. In using the key, he accidentally discovers that the man has taped to his chest, under his shirt, a small envelope containing a little hand-drawn map. He puts it back and goes back on deck, to steer into the Dutch harbour. Before he can get there, however, a pretty girl comes up in a small motorboat saying that she is the dead man's daughter. Taylor breaks the news to her and she says she wants to look at her father, and goes down below. Taylor follows her after a while and finds her ransacking the cabin, looking urgently for something. She has pried open the briefcase and is searching everywhere. She runs away, gets back in her boat and goes back into the harbour. Taylor looks and sees that the map is still taped to the man's chest, and that she has missed it. He takes it and hides it in his private stowaway with his gun. He later discovers that the girl was an impostor and was not the dead man's daughter at all. The intrigue deepens as Taylor is taken into custody by the Dutch police and removed to the Hague, where a senior Dutch police inspector is played by a gruff Donald Wolfit. He informs Taylor that the dead man was really a Mr Sluiter, who was head of the Hague Police Force. He had made a secret trip to England as part of a confidential investigation. The plot thickens and thickens and thickens, with villains turning up, some unctuous and rich, some thuggish. The fake daughter gets murdered, and there is menace all around. David Kossof is particularly brilliant as a supporting actor, playing a character named Willem Dekker. He adds a great deal of liveliness to the film. This is all good fun and well recommended.

I enjoyed watching this film as I am a big fan of film moire. It is what in a book I would call a page turner. The actors are good their craft, the setting in beautiful. It contains sailing and captains, I am a sailor. My father grew up in Holland and I have visited there just love the country. I like the number of twists in the plot, it kept me wanting to see what's next, then what's next and the double of a role of one of the character was a good technique. The only slightly negative thing I noticed about the film was the plot seemed to be a bit of a veiled cover of "The Maltese Falcon". That movie came out in 1946, and this one in 1959. I don't why that was. Since it is set "across the pond" perhaps the author sold the rights twice. Or the movie producers used their rights twice. Or it is just a remake. Otherwise, bottom line, I enjoyed it and would recommend checking it out.

The House of the Seven Hawks is an adaptation of Victor Canning's novel, The House of the Seven Flies. Richard Thorpe directs and it stars Robert Taylor, Nicole Maurey, Linda Christian, Donald Wolfit, David Kossoff and Eric Pohlmann. Music is by Clifton Parker and cinematography by Edward Scaife.It's a film that looks tired and cheap, the plot for what it's worth pitches Taylor as a sea dog type captain involved with criminals, the law, pretty ladies and hidden treasure. Those elements should have made for a riveting mystery, sadly that is not the case. Taylor looks bored but still manages to give off a presence and a nice line in wry humour, while the Dutch locations deserve a better film. But ultimately there's a reason why this is a little known Taylor movie, it's poor and just one for us Taylor completists to tick off of our list. 5/10

This movie just doesn't have the most exciting or best mystery-elements around. It's a rather dull movie that lacks most of the required genre elements. Although it tries in parts- this is no film-noir but even for a 'standard' thriller type of movie this one just isn't good enough.The story isn't the most interesting one around but it's even worse how the story is told. Some of the sequences go on for far too long, without anything interesting happening in it. Problem is that the story felt the need to put in way too much (redundant) dialog. Guess that they just desperately tried to make the movie longer, since it's a quite short one (92 minutes). The movie really isn't build up well and in the beginning it's too unclear were the movie is trying to head to.The movie picks some weird and unbelievable plot-lines. Besides that, the movie also doesn't offer any real surprises. It's pretty clear from the beginning on who are going to be the good and bad guys and gals of the movie. It's true that the movie gets better toward the end but it's all too late to still fully save the movie. In its build up the movie simply lacks all the things needed to make a good and tense genre movie with. For a thriller this movie is just too dull and totally not interesting enough to follow. The characters all remain too flat and the only established actor in this movie is Robert Taylor, who does his very best but just can't carry this movie on his own. I mean this movie is not even good or really interesting to watch for the most hardened Robert Taylor fans.For me it was a big plus that the movie is set and actually filmed- and almost entirely set in The Netherlands. It was all very recognizable. It's locations and atmosphere works well for the movie, although it's too bad that they didn't made the trouble to cast Dutch actors in the roles of Dutch, not even for the bit parts, which was a bit distracting but obviously only should be so when you're Dutch yourself.By no means the worst genre movie I've ever seen but just not among one of the best or most refreshingly original ones either. Somewhat watchable but not really recommendable to anyone.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/