First, there's the non-period Powell hair perm?
Hannay had 'escaped' custody and is a wanted man, charged with killing several high profile people, but he walks brazenly back to the crime scene for the diary, without disguise?
Disguised as a vicar, he nearly gets away, but looks back at the Prussian.
My problem was with the (almost) empty notebook that was dropped and knocked out of sight during Scudder's murder. Why did Scudder have an empty notebook with him to begin with? If he was on his way to the station to tell Hannay that he'd posted the encoded notebook to the Post Office in Hannay's Scottish retreat, why would he go to the trouble of scribbling the same message (albeit in cryptic form, 'one horse dorp') in the empty notebook?
shareYeah, clunky storytelling at it's most rollicking, Empire jingoistic!
share''Why did Scudder have an empty notebook with him to begin with? If he was on his way to the station to tell Hannay that he'd posted the encoded notebook to the Post Office in Hannay's Scottish retreat, why would he go to the trouble of scribbling the same message (albeit in cryptic form, 'one horse dorp') in the empty notebook?''
Scudder left to post the notebook but was spotted so he decided to try to give it to Hannay instead.
Formerly KingAngantyr
''First, there's the non-period Powell hair perm?''
Perm? That is his real hair and would look the same in that era.
''Hannay had 'escaped' custody and is a wanted man, charged with killing several high profile people, but he walks brazenly back to the crime scene for the diary, without disguise?''
The place is crowded and used by the public.
Formerly KingAngantyr
And the idiot wanders back into public where people are watching, or potentially so.
"I watched it and got something below expectation, so I'm venting on a public forum!"
''And the idiot wanders back into public where people are watching, or potentially so.''
Actually tests have shown that it is better to hide in well crowded and public areas. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant as this is just a film and needs to have some silly plot points to move the story along. And you cannot judge it only on a few gaffs, it is at least better than the 30s version which had a silly premise.
Formerly KingAngantyr
ContinentalOp: "''First, there's the non-period Powell hair perm?''
Perm? That is his real hair and would look the same in that era.
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No, that is unmistakably a seventies perm and haircut to even naturally curled hair.
No idea what the approach would have been to naturally curly hair like that, especially for guys, a century ago. I suspect there would have definitely been a toning down to it or something.
My mother apparently had heavily curly hair like that, but she and her sister would tone it down, making it look straight or cutting it all off, as was the fasion in the fifties and sixties.
I don't study fashion, but when he opened the door to John Mills, I felt like someone had traveled thru time about sixty years.
Hannay's fashions were all wrong; his pants, everything.
If you look at Robert Powell in other programs you will see that this is indeed his natural hair and short of giving him a crewcut there wasn't much that could be done. Since it is set just prior to 1914 his hairstyle was quite in keeping with that era, as were the clothes which he wore - I seem to remember that he wore a Norfolk jacket and an ordinary gentleman's dinner suit for the more formal scenes which was quite in keeping with the era. Check out any Edwardian period drama and you will see what I mean.
As for cutting very curly hair off during the 1960s, this is absurd. I suggest that you have a look at a very young Robert Powell in 'The Italian Job'(1969) and you will see that his hairstyle is exactly the same.