Park Plaza 605

1953 British film by Bernard Knowles

Bertram Ostrer
Albert Fennell
Bernard Knowles
Clifford Witting (treatment)

Based onnovel Dare-Devil Conquest by Berkeley GrayProduced by

Albert Fennell
Bertram Ostrer

Starring

Tom Conway
Eva Bartok
Joy Shelton

CinematographyEric CrossEdited byClifford Boote (as Cifford Boot)Music byPhilip Green

Production
company

B & A Productions (as B & A Productions Limited)

Distributed byEros Films

Release date

December 1953 (1953-12) (UK)

Running time

75 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

Park Plaza 605 (U.S. title: Norman Conquest) is a 1953 British second feature ('B')^[1] crime film directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Tom Conway, Eva Bartok, and Joy Shelton.^[2]^[3] It was written by Bertram Oster, Albert Fennell, Knowles and Clifford Witting based on the 1950 novel Dare-devil Conquest by Edwy Searles Brookes (as Berkeley Gray).^[4]

Plot

Private investigator Norman Conquest stumbles across a cryptic message being sent by carrier pigeon and his curiosity leads him to room 605 of the Park Plaza Hotel, where he meets a mysterious foreign blonde woman, and finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation with himself as the prime suspect.

Cast

Tom Conway as Norman Conquest
Eva Bartok as Nadina Rodin
Joy Shelton as Pixie Everard
Sid James as Superintendent Bill Williams
Richard Wattis as Theodore Feather
Carl Jaffe as Boris Roff
Frederick Schiller as Ivan Burgin
Robert Adair as Baron von Henschel
Anton Diffring as Gregor
Ian Fleming as Colonel Santling
Edwin Richfield as Mr Reynolds
Michael Balfour as Ted Birston
Martin Boddey as Stumpy
Terence Alexander as hotel manager
Victor Platt as taxi driver
Leon Davey as Mandeville Livingstone
Richard Marner as Barkov
Tony Hilton as lift attendant
Alan Rolfe as police inspector
Derek Prentice as hall porter
Frank Sieman as Captain Kramer
Brian Moorehead as first mate
Billie Hill as Mrs Pottle
Anthony Woodruff as clerk

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "An Involved and indifferently made thriller; the actors give the impression that they have all been there before."^[5]

Radio Times called Park Plaza 605 a "fair British B-feature."^[6]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Indifferent thriller with tired performances."^[7]

References

^ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
^ "Park Plaza 605". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
^ bkoganbing (11 September 1953). "Norman Conquest (1953)". IMDb.
^ "Park Plaza 605". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
^ "Park Plaza 605". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 21 (240): 11. 1 January 1954 – via ProQuest.
^ Allen Eyles. "Park Plaza 605". RadioTimes.
^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 359. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.