There is actually a good story line here. Obviously the film had a zero budget and it shows but it is well worth the watch. There are numerous flaws but there is a great deal of attention to detail - I particularly liked the scenes in the shop when the lighter case was moulded and then electroplated. As an engineer it all looked pretty accurate to me. Also the genuine coldness of the murderers who took the life of a lonely scientist. I also found the story really good - the dissident who swapped hotel rooms was an interesting character.Not the easiest film to get hold of but if you watch it in context of it's age and low finance it is quite good.

There are times when a movie surprises even those who thought they were beyond being shocked. It doesn't happen often but every now and again even I can be shocked at how stupid a script is. Forgive me for sounding so egotistical but this movie is so incredibly stupid that it makes you feel like you could take over a world filled with dummies like those portrayed in this film.The plot is simple, some bad guys kill a scientist working on a new metal, making it look like a suicide. They then have a jeweler make it into a cigarette case for easy smuggling. Enter an American Jewel smuggler...and this is absolutely one of the worst plotted movies I've ever seen. The detectives ignore clues and just stand around (they can't find what the dead scientist was working on but we saw the liquid metal dripping on the floor, the man is shot in the chest from across the room yet the gun is found in his hand by his head, ever hear of powder burns?). Everyone does what is the least likely thing that anyone in a similar situation would do. It boggles the mind at how stupid these people are. You want to scream at the screen because these people are so dense and stupid. Its a truly frustrating exercise. I made it half way into this turkey before I had to shut it off lest I die of apoplexy. Mind bogglingly bad-and coming from me thats saying a great deal since I love bad movies, just not ones this bad.

I taped Mark Of the Phoenix when ITV screened it during the early hours some time ago. They often used to screen these British crime B movies, but don't seem to now for some reason.In this one, a jewel thief gets hold of a cigarette case made from a new type of metal. Police are on his trail and it turns out that the metal this case is made from is atomic.This is one of the slightly better crime dramas made during this period and the fact that the metal the case is made from being atomic is certainly not surprising as the Atomic Age was at its height.I've only heard of one of the stars of this movie, Anton Diffring (Circus of Horrors).Mark of the Phoenix is a good time filler one evening. Not too bad.Rationg: 3 stars out of 5.

Anton Diffring stars in this duff British supporting thriller concerning (guess what!) the smuggling of a cigarette case composed of a secret alloy. Really it's just "The Lavender Hill Mob" without the Eiffel towers or the comedic charm of Ealing. Its produced by "Butcher's Films", Britain's poverty row film production company who turned out many a mediocre b-feature at this time. This particular one was made in 1957, but shelved until 1959 until a suitable main feature was found to go with it. Don't let the rather nudging title fool you because it's not that exciting. These days the Butcher's films occasionally turn up on ITV in the wee small hours as a time filler.