Tiger Bay (1959)

Hayley Mills is extraordinary in this tale of murder and friendship

For a movie that starts with a murder fueled by rage and ends with a dangerous decision to be made in rough seas, Tiger Bay is one of the most touching and endearing studies of childhood and friendship you could hope to see. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed.

When a young Polish seaman named Korchinsky (Horst Buchholz) returns to his home port in Wales after a long spell at sea, he is the happiest man alive. He has some money in his pocket and a good-looking girlfriend. He can hardly wait to arrive at her apartment flat, which he has been paying the rent on. But he meets someone else living there. When he finally locates his girl, he finds she's been seeing someone else, a man she thinks has "class." It's the old story. She begins screaming at him. He loses his temper and screams back. She pulls a gun from a dresser drawer and orders him out of her apartment and out of her life. In a mater of seconds he's wrestled the gun away from her and she's lying dead on the floor of multiple bullet wounds. And while this has been going on, ten-year-old Gillie (Hayley Mills) has been crouched down and staring at what she could see through the mail slot in the door. Gillie is bright and quick. She lives with her aunt down the hall. She's good at making up stories, not lies, exactly, but close enough. Her friends won't play cops and robbers with her because she doesn't have a toy gun. She loves to imagine adventures. Korchinsky hears the police arriving. He hides the gun and then hides himself. As soon as he disappears, Gillie nips in and takes the gun from where she saw Korchinsky hide it. But now Korchinsky spots her.

For the rest of the movie we follow Gillie as she avoids Korchinsky, as she shows off the gun to a friend during choir, and as Detective Superintendent Graham (John Mills) questions Gillie and the neighbors to try to make sense of the murder. It doesn't take long for Korchinsky to abduct Gillie with a tale of escaping on an adventure to another country. He knows she is the only one who can identify him. Gillie, her head full of excitement, is no dummy, but she longs for what she imagines. Korchinsky, in fact, turns out to be a young man over his head, almost as young in some ways as Gillie. He begins to see Gillie as the same kind of uncomplicated dreamer in some ways he is. While he convinces Gillie not to give him away, he leaves her for a few hours so he can sign on to a ship soon to sail for Caracas. When Gillie is found alone and waiting for Korchinsky to return, Superintendent Graham must try to convince Gillie that Korchinsky is dangerous and that she must corporate to capture him. Gillie, despite the best efforts of Graham, will not betray her friend. The cat and mouse struggle between Graham and Gillie is one of the most amusing situations in the movie.

The climax is on the freighter bound for Caracas just outside the three mile zone off the coast of Wales. The inspector has arrived on a pilot boat with Gillie to identify Korchinsky. He is determined to bring Korchinsky in. Just when it looks like Korchinsky will be safe, Gillie falls overboard in the high seas. The only one who sees her fall is Korchinsky. If he lets her die unseen, he will remain on the ship and be safe as it heads away from Britain. If he dives in to try to save Gillie, he will be picked up by the pilot boat, even if he saves her, and returned to Wales, sooner or later to be tried for murder. It's his choice and he has only seconds to decide.

This was Hayley Mills first movie. She was 13 and she is extraordinary. Buchholz and Mills (her father) do fine jobs, but the movie fails or succeeds on whether or not the person of Gillie captures us. We not only have to identify with Gillie, we have to believe in her. Mills makes Gillie a person we root for, a person we understand why she won't turn in her friend even after she realizes he won't be taking her anywhere. Mills does all this with straightforward and unaffected charm, and without a speck of sentimentality.

But nothing is perfect in this world, and Tiger Bay is cursed with one of the most awful screen scores I've ever heard. It's not only loud, it's cloyingly sentimental with tons of lush strings. Worse, it punctuates every tense scene with cliche-ridden horn stings and drum beats. The score does a disservice to the movie. The DVD transfer of the Region Two disc is first rate. I don't know the quality of the Region One versions. The movie is in black and white, and the docks and Gillie's gritty working class neighborhood look just as tough as they probably were. With the exception of the score, the movie is the work of skilled craftsmen who knew how tell a story. The Region Two disc also features a commentary by Hayley Mills. If you don't already have an all-region DVD player, I'd get one along with the Regiuon Two DVD of Tiger Bay. April 20, 2007

Chance meeting between two lonely souls

Hayley Mills, in her screen debut, stars as lonely, mischievous 11 year old outcast tomboy Gillie in the sensitive and gritty drama "Tiger Bay". Mills, a recent inhabitant in her aunt's flat in a squalid harborside Cardiff, Wales neighborhood, is shunned from play by the local kids for lack of a cap pistol. In a chance encounter she meets Polish sailor Korchinsky played by a handsome Horst Buchholz. He had just disembarked from the freighter he had been working on and was looking for his girlfriend Anya, who had moved to a new apartment. Gillie was to be his guide there as this was where she also lived.

As Buchholz entered the apartment, he realized that something was amiss. His girl Anya, played by Yvonne Mitchell had dumped him for a more gentlemanly beau. In an angry spew she cut him to the quick and threatened him with a gun. Buchholz wrested the pistol from her and in a murderous jealous rage shot her dead. Little did he know that Gillie was observing the entire encounter by peering through the letterbox after she heard noises while loitering on the staircase nearby.

The shots soon brought police and Buchholz fled hiding the gun he used near to where Mills was hiding to evade the fleeing Buchholz. Mills seeing the gun, grabbed it now having the key to entrance to the games the local kids were playing. Unfortunately Buchholz saw her take and seeing him she ran away from him with the gun.

Buchholz realizing that the young girl could implicate him started searching for her. After finding her, he gently detained her promising her stowage aboard his ship. These two lonesome outcasts soon forged a friendship but eventually became separated. Mills still in hiding was finally found by authorities as kidnapping had been feared.

Loyal to her friendship with Buchholz, Mills was reluctant to betray him when questioned by police superintendant Graham, played by her father Sir John Mills. Gillie's reluctance allowed Buchholz time to try to escape by signing onto another ship soon departing. The drama played out with Gillie steadfast in her silence and the inspector trying to wring the truth out of her.

"Tiger Bay" was an underrated drama, filmed beautifully in black and white in the seedy environs of Cardiff dockside. The acting performances by all the starring cast was top notch. The relationship between Buchholz and Mills was poignantly depicted. This initial performance by Hayley Mills soon propelled her to a prolific acting career under the banner of Walt Disney productions. April 30, 2006

Very entertaining, pre-Disney Hayley

I just got through trashing another of Hayley's movies, The Moon-Spinners, so I want to make sure I give credit where credit is due.

This 1959 movie was Hayley's debut, in which she stole the show and received an award at the Berlin Film festival. Hayley went on to do a seemingly endless string of Disney movies.

This is a well-made action adventure, although the very end was a bit of a cliche. However, I recommend it for Hayley fans, or anyone looking for a good adventure.

The DVD picture is a bit grainy and has some artifacts, but not too distracting. Chapters only. No extras - not even a trailer. August 19, 2003

Hayley Mills. The Magnificent Seven duck for cover.

Hayley Mills. She's the thief that stole my heart. Resistance is futile. There's only one Hayley Mills. This is fortunate. Two would make 'Black Hawk Down' look like a CND march. She's the radioactive little scamp of whom Mohammed Ali allegedly whimpered "blimey, I'm off to the rumble in the jungle".
In this movie our Haze demolishes half of Wales in the pursuit of true lurve. Bullets cannot faze her. Cars bounce off her. Murderers melt before her gaze. Arnold Swarzenegger pleads a prior engagement. Stephen Seagal...well, we won't bother about him. Actually, Wales is already quite dangerous before four foot nothing of Hayley goes into action. She is a witness to a murder so the police want her to help them with their enquiries. But first they have to catch her. There are no SWAT teams in Wales so they are immediately in trouble. Next to her, Richard Kimble has rickets. It takes 15 officers and a bus to stop her. They should have sent an armoured truck. Resistance is futile.

The murderer is played by Horst Bucholz, the only member of 'The Magnificent Seven' people can't remember in pub quizes. The police discover that Bucholz has gone to board a ship and escape Britain, so they chase to the docks. The whole universe loves Hayley and throws various impediments in the way of the car but to no avail. Once on board the ship, the chief inspector, played by real life father John Mills, wants our Haze to identify the culprit and gives her a very stern lecture on the importance of honesty and morality. Being a modern Miss, our Haze quickly comes to the conclusion as to what really matters in life...Looks! Give Mr Bucholz a recording contract. Preferably Ricky Martin's. She won't give up the bad guy who is forced to reveal himself when she rather expediently falls over board. They are both rescued. He hugs her. She weeps. He hugs her some more. Oh, how I hate him. But not even Hannibal Lector would harm a hair on Hayley's head. Resistance is futile. I recently saw a picture of her at her father's birthday celebrations and she hasn't aged a bit.

COMING NEXT: Hayley invades Mars. Rockets fly! Laser's zap! RESISTANCE IS..... January 21, 2002

Tiger Bay Roars

Directed by J. Lee Thompson who brought you "The Guns of Navarrone" and "Cape Fear", Tiger Bay is a top notch suspense film. The 13 year old Haley Mills plays a tom boy who sees a murder by Horst Buchholz ("Magnificent Seven"). Of course, the killer sees the little girl who is the only person who can identify him and comes after her. Her true life father, John Mills, plays the police investigator in charge of this murder case. Haley Mills performance is riviting and won her a special award at the Berlin Film Festival. December 9, 2001

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