Cloudburst (1951)

(On Cable TV, September 2021) Now here’s something interesting: A British film noir set in the post-war years and focusing on a code-breaking protagonist. No, “Bletchley Park” is not mentioned — Cloudburst was completed decades before the extent of the Allies’ code-breaking was declassified—, but there’s something almost reverential in the way the code-breaking is treated here. Part of it is a gimmick (including a sloppy code left on the scene of the crime) and part of it comes from screenwriter Leo Marks, who did work in code-breaking during WW2 (although, ironically, not at Bletchley Park). The Canadian-born protagonist is initially presented as a promising young man with an ideal life and an expectant wife, but then — the wife is killed in a hit-and-run, and the protagonist goes on a roaring rampage of revenge to find and kill those responsible. Using his wartime skills, he makes mincemeat of the first culprit, then hits a wall in tracking down the passenger. Ironically enough, things get moving once again when the authorities bring him the coded message he left on the scene of his first murder and ask him to, essentially, investigate himself. It’s all handled with a certain competence: Francis Searle directs the material appropriately from within a burgeoning Hammer studio, and Robert Preston lends his voice to the lead. It’s a satisfying watch despite some unconvincing staging and some strange plotting oversights — the code-breaking aspect really helps to set it apart from the pack, and Preston’s character gets more and more interesting when he’s stuck between his own revenge and the police closing in. Thanks to all of those added details, Cloudburst remains well worth a look—especially as a slight deviation from the usual noir material.