In Cloudburst Scotland Yard Inspector Colin Tapley describes the man he is looking for as a man who was trained with the skill to take vengeance on his own. That in fact is Robert Preston who is a Canadian with experience in special Ops during the late war and skill as a cryptologist.
Robert Preston after being cut loose from his Paramount contract and five years away from his career role in The Music Man was getting work where he could find it. Cloudburst is a British film with Preston in the lead to insure box office clout abroad and as usual for Americans, he plays a Canadian.
While in the country looking over some property Preston bought, Sellars is run down in a hit and run. The perpetrators were Harold Lang and Sheila Burrell who just committed a robbery where they also killed a night watchman. Preston gets a good look and even a license number. If he had just gone to the authorities, Scotland Yard would have nailed these two. But Preston has other plans.
Too many flaws in Cloudburst to keep it from becoming a noir classic. Preston leaves a really incriminating clue at Lang's gym (he is a boxer) that sends Tapley in Preston's obvious direction.
Still a good performance by Preston masks a lot of flaws over and makes Cloudburst a good British noir film.
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