BARBADOS QUEST is the first of two outings for Tom Conway's ageing private eye 'Duke' Martin, a guy who can never sit still but must go around solving crimes wherever he sees them. BREAKAWAY was the sequel which followed shortly although it's not as good as this movie. BARBADOS QUEST sounds like an interesting precursor to Bond, promising globetrotting and an exotic location, but unfortunately the Barbados of the title in reality refers to a rare stamp.Yes, it's a crime film built around stamp collecting, and as genteel and sedate as it sounds despite a handful of fight scenes being shoehorned into the plot. The first half of this film has a genuine sense of mystery about it as the viewer isn't sure what's happened and isn't sure what's going on either. In the second half, the motivations of the entire cast are quite clear and things slow down considerably as a result with the sense of mystery lost.Conway is an acceptable lead despite being too long in the tooth to successfully convince as the protagonist. Delphi Lawrence does a good job of playing the glamorous woman involved in the case, but the real scene stealer is Michael Balfour who excels in his 'comedy sidekick' role. The final mention goes to Brian Worth, who channels some of the spirit of a youthful Dennis Price as a mysterious figure involved in the proceedings. BARBADOS QUEST is no masterpiece, but for a film about stamp collecting it's surprisingly efficient.

Given that this film was made for distribution by RKO Radio maybe it is not surprising that this comes out as a rather pale imitation of The Saint and Falcon films made by RKO in the 1940s,in which Tom Conway appeared.He is called "the Duke" and has a comedy sidekick who is feebly played by Michael Balfour>In fact I recall that one of the Saint pictures had a plot revolving around stamps.Here every cliché in the book is thrown in.Bodies that disappear witnesses who do a runner.Everything about this production feels tired and second rate not least Tom Conway who is clearly just going through the motions.Merely a time passer.

The earlier 'Breakaway' (1955) was probably a hit as this is a sequel (or were they made back-to-back?) and it was released around about the same time. It has Tom Conway and Michael Balfour returning as Private Detective Tom 'Duke' Martin and his friend/stooge Barney Wilson. The main plot is about the counterfeiting of rare stamps including a valuable one from Barbados. Tom Conway is called onto the case and flies to England from America. As usual he keeps bumping into some very beautiful women along the way, including secretary Jean Larson (played by Delphi Lawrence). He eventually solves the crime and if you liked the first one you should like this as it has the usual Baker/Berman private detective action formula, which they later used on 'The Saint' with Roger Moore. Pretty good!

Bad surprise for me. I expected much more from this British thriller produced by Monty Berman and Robert Baker. Boring, talkative, no real action. The topic is forgettable. Story about investigation around stamps, with a Tom Neal - Georges Sanders' brother - no concerned at all. No suspense, flat ending.British crime films, thrillers, are often like this movie, especially 50's ones. You have to be lucky to catch the good one.I have not seen other films from the director Bernard Knowles, they are not easily available. Perhaps are they better than this one ?But this item would please some users if they may watch it.