Customer Reviews

Tiger Bay

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first saw this movie at Goose Bay AFB in Labrador on a cold winter's night at the base theatre. I had no idea what was being shown, nor had any of the other GI's who attended that evening. Near the end of the film there is a particularly exciting moment and the entire audience - well over a thousand guys! - gasped with astonishment! At the end there was applause and shouts of "Great movie!" Several of us followed the movie as it wound its way to the many theatres on the air base, and we took others who hadn't seen it who were also deeply moved by the story. Over the years, now on video tape and DVD (Hurrah!) this "little" movie never fails to deliver its huge emotional impact. Hayley Mills (pre-Disney) and Horst Buchholz (pre-Magnificent Seven) will break your heart and then restore it. A truly great motion picture, one once discovered is never forgotten! If you haven't seen it you are missing one of the all-time classic films!

Tiger Bay takes place in Cardiff, Wales. An 11 year old girl is the only witness to a murder of a woman by her sailor boyfriend. The child is followed after the murder to a church, where she sings in the choir. After the service the murderer corners the child in the church. A confrontation ensues. This was the acting debut of Hayley Mills on whose shoulders rest the core of the movie. Her father John Mills plays the police inspector who tries to discern the truth from the child. Horst Buchholz is the sailor who committed the murder. This is one of the finest films you are ever likely to see.

You'll remember this movie - in part because of the imaginative details it employs, in part because it is entirely outside any "formula". It has a suspenseful plot, but it also has so many smaller qualities of truthfulness about children and the ways adults interact with them and accept or don't accept them.

I don't know why the British do this so very well - think of The Fallen Idol or Whistle Down the Wind (also with Hayley Mills) which are also wonderful. These three movies let you observe the children and don't push things down your throat. Almost all the characters in these three movies are sympathetic, yet in sharp conflict.

The direction and editing are first-rate, the performances by all are excellent, the plot is exciting.

I, too, saw this film first many years ago, then again recently, and I am still amazed at its power, for such a "little" film. An intriguing storyline, acted with great depth by young Mills and the rest of the cast. Seeing this makes you understand why Mills was such a hot property when young, and how Disney failed to use her properly. This ranks with the best of the "art" films of the late 50s and 60s; a true find.

In this black and white, early-60's film, we get a rare glimpse of Hayley Mills before her discovery by Walt Disney, as she shares the screen with her actor father, John. She is truly extraordinary as a young tomboy, who gets involved with a fugitive -- natural, convincing, and affecting. And the film itself is well worth seeing for its depiction of her relationship with the man on the lam, played by Horst Bucholz. See this if you can.

Directed by J. Lee Thompson who brought you "The Guns of Navarrone" and "Cape Fear", Tiger Bay is a top notch suspense film. The 13 year old Haley Mills plays a tom boy who sees a murder by Horst Buchholz ("Magnificent Seven"). Of course, the killer sees the little girl who is the only person who can identify him and comes after her. Her true life father, John Mills, plays the police investigator in charge of this murder case. Haley Mills performance is riviting and won her a special award at the Berlin Film Festival.

Hayley Mills, in her screen debut, stars as lonely, mischievous 11 year old outcast tomboy Gillie in the sensitive and gritty drama "Tiger Bay". Mills, a recent inhabitant in her aunt's flat in a squalid harborside Cardiff, Wales neighborhood, is shunned from play by the local kids for lack of a cap pistol. In a chance encounter she meets Polish sailor Korchinsky played by a handsome Horst Buchholz. He had just disembarked from the freighter he had been working on and was looking for his girlfriend Anya, who had moved to a new apartment. Gillie was to be his guide there as this was where she also lived.

As Buchholz entered the apartment, he realized that something was amiss. His girl Anya, played by Yvonne Mitchell had dumped him for a more gentlemanly beau. In an angry spew she cut him to the quick and threatened him with a gun. Buchholz wrested the pistol from her and in a murderous jealous rage shot her dead. Little did he know that Gillie was observing the entire encounter by peering through the letterbox after she heard noises while loitering on the staircase nearby.

The shots soon brought police and Buchholz fled hiding the gun he used near to where Mills was hiding to evade the fleeing Buchholz. Mills seeing the gun, grabbed it now having the key to entrance to the games the local kids were playing. Unfortunately Buchholz saw her take and seeing him she ran away from him with the gun.

Buchholz realizing that the young girl could implicate him started searching for her. After finding her, he gently detained her promising her stowage aboard his ship. These two lonesome outcasts soon forged a friendship but eventually became separated. Mills still in hiding was finally found by authorities as kidnapping had been feared.

Loyal to her friendship with Buchholz, Mills was reluctant to betray him when questioned by police superintendant Graham, played by her father Sir John Mills. Gillie's reluctance allowed Buchholz time to try to escape by signing onto another ship soon departing. The drama played out with Gillie steadfast in her silence and the inspector trying to wring the truth out of her.

"Tiger Bay" was an underrated drama, filmed beautifully in black and white in the seedy environs of Cardiff dockside. The acting performances by all the starring cast was top notch. The relationship between Buchholz and Mills was poignantly depicted. This initial performance by Hayley Mills soon propelled her to a prolific acting career under the banner of Walt Disney productions.

The way this film was directed focuses very well on the characters. The emotions of the characters are presented very strongly and one is brought into the plot. Hayley and her dad, John Mills, who is also in it play well off each other and the relationship that her character has with the co-star is charming and touching. I also am blessed by the lesson of the film, but I can't tell you that because it might spoil it for you. If you enjoy Hayley Mills and her dad in this film, as I do; check out The Chalk Garden and the Truth About Spring. I hope you enjoy.

This film is still haunting me,more than twenty years since I last viewed it.

For a movie that starts with a murder fueled by rage and ends with a dangerous decision to be made in rough seas, Tiger Bay is one of the most touching and endearing studies of childhood and friendship you could hope to see. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed.

When a young Polish seaman named Korchinsky (Horst Buchholz) returns to his home port in Wales after a long spell at sea, he is the happiest man alive. He has some money in his pocket and a good-looking girlfriend. He can hardly wait to arrive at her apartment flat, which he has been paying the rent on. But he meets someone else living there. When he finally locates his girl, he finds she's been seeing someone else, a man she thinks has "class." It's the old story. She begins screaming at him. He loses his temper and screams back. She pulls a gun from a dresser drawer and orders him out of her apartment and out of her life. In a mater of seconds he's wrestled the gun away from her and she's lying dead on the floor of multiple bullet wounds. And while this has been going on, ten-year-old Gillie (Hayley Mills) has been crouched down and staring at what she could see through the mail slot in the door. Gillie is bright and quick. She lives with her aunt down the hall. She's good at making up stories, not lies, exactly, but close enough. Her friends won't play cops and robbers with her because she doesn't have a toy gun. She loves to imagine adventures. Korchinsky hears the police arriving. He hides the gun and then hides himself. As soon as he disappears, Gillie nips in and takes the gun from where she saw Korchinsky hide it. But now Korchinsky spots her.

For the rest of the movie we follow Gillie as she avoids Korchinsky, as she shows off the gun to a friend during choir, and as Detective Superintendent Graham (John Mills) questions Gillie and the neighbors to try to make sense of the murder. It doesn't take long for Korchinsky to abduct Gillie with a tale of escaping on an adventure to another country. He knows she is the only one who can identify him. Gillie, her head full of excitement, is no dummy, but she longs for what she imagines. Korchinsky, in fact, turns out to be a young man over his head, almost as young in some ways as Gillie. He begins to see Gillie as the same kind of uncomplicated dreamer in some ways he is. While he convinces Gillie not to give him away, he leaves her for a few hours so he can sign on to a ship soon to sail for Caracas. When Gillie is found alone and waiting for Korchinsky to return, Superintendent Graham must try to convince Gillie that Korchinsky is dangerous and that she must corporate to capture him. Gillie, despite the best efforts of Graham, will not betray her friend. The cat and mouse struggle between Graham and Gillie is one of the most amusing situations in the movie.

The climax is on the freighter bound for Caracas just outside the three mile zone off the coast of Wales. The inspector has arrived on a pilot boat with Gillie to identify Korchinsky. He is determined to bring Korchinsky in. Just when it looks like Korchinsky will be safe, Gillie falls overboard in the high seas. The only one who sees her fall is Korchinsky. If he lets her die unseen, he will remain on the ship and be safe as it heads away from Britain. If he dives in to try to save Gillie, he will be picked up by the pilot boat, even if he saves her, and returned to Wales, sooner or later to be tried for murder. It's his choice and he has only seconds to decide.

This was Hayley Mills first movie. She was 13 and she is extraordinary. Buchholz and Mills (her father) do fine jobs, but the movie fails or succeeds on whether or not the person of Gillie captures us. We not only have to identify with Gillie, we have to believe in her. Mills makes Gillie a person we root for, a person we understand why she won't turn in her friend even after she realizes he won't be taking her anywhere. Mills does all this with straightforward and unaffected charm, and without a speck of sentimentality.

But nothing is perfect in this world, and Tiger Bay is cursed with one of the most awful screen scores I've ever heard. It's not only loud, it's cloyingly sentimental with tons of lush strings. Worse, it punctuates every tense scene with cliche-ridden horn stings and drum beats. The score does a disservice to the movie. The DVD transfer is first rate. The movie is in black and white, and the docks and Gillie's gritty working class neighborhood look just as tough as they probably were. With the exception of the score, the movie is the work of skilled craftsmen who knew how tell a story. The Region Two disc features a commentary by Hayley Mills.