This film is a sort of portmanteau.Letters lost 15 years before being finally delivered by the post office,now that's a likely story.As with all such films they rest entirely on the individual stories.I felt the the film was least successful when it lapsed into trade by and more successful when it kept matters light such as the episode with the wife planting a stooge so she could get a divorce with a big settlement.The biggest surprise was the last story.Peter Butterworth plays a boxer who pays dearly when he crosses a fight fixing gang.He has such a launch that it makes the whole idea pretty daft.Generally the film is reasonably entertaining.
Add a Review
-
malcolmgsw21 November 2015
-
boblipton18 December 2020Fifteen years after a mail robbery, the loot is recovered, along with four letters. It's up to Ronald Howard to track down the recipients, because the mail must go through. Newspaper reporter Christina Gregg goes along, hoping for a human interest story or two. It turns out there are five.
It's a series of pleasant vignettes, some with humor, but all of them offering at least a bit of comfort to the recipients. It's not a particularly profound movie. Indeed, it would have made a nice TV series along the lines of The Millionaire. Max Varnel directs lightly for a pleasant second feature. -
TheFearmakers11 February 2021An hour-long programmer that feels like a pilot for a reality TV-series with Christina Gregg, who starred in several crime thrillers, which FATE TAKES A HAND has only a little to do with, but it's important since, fifteen-years earlier, a batch of letters were stolen in a heist, and having turned up it's now the British Post Office's duty to return each to a bevy of eclectic characters...
Christina Gregg plays a reporter tagging along with Ronald Howard, meeting the would-be-recipients at home or work, each telling a flashback yarn about how bad their lives have gotten for which each letter will mend...
These tales include a love-lorn blind woman, paling to the rudimentary comic relief of a working man standing up to his boss after winning money... while the most earthy has a prisoner recollecting a little girl's kidnapping...
Then the last two are the most important: One about a husband being framed by a crooked wife... the only to occur before and after the letter-carrying-duo arrive...
And a punchy ex-brawler who "could have been a contender" before throwing a fight... Making this not so much a Christina Gregg vehicle but a window seat she breezily looks out of. -
searchanddestroy-14 April 2010I expected a thriller, a good old UK crime or noir feature made by Butcher's or Danzigers, but it's a sort of comedy drama instead. It's written by the great Brian Clemens although.
The topic is not so usual and this story slightly above average because of this very tale of letters found on a crime scene and fifteen years old. So a couple of journalists try to find the people whom the letters were addressed for so many years ago. And they find different fates, related to these letters. A poor blind girl whom the fiancé died during the war, a man already divorced and who did not know it, another guy whom the daughter was kidnapped, a prize fighter... Interesting.
I won't spoil this feature any further. But it's worthwhile. -
daoldiges18 March 2023Ronald Howard and Christina Gregg lead this story of lost mail, personal letters from 15 years ago are found and they decide to hand deliver all five of them to the intended recipients. This production isn't really very film like at all but feels more like a pilot for a television series or something of that nature. I was expecting some suspense but absolutely none of that was on offer here. Instead we have 5 unique short stories linked together via the two letter messengers. Fate Takes a Hand is billed as a drama, which is fine but there really wasn't all that much drama either. It's a serviceable little production that is mildly entertaining if you're looking for some light, easy to view fair for 72 minutes.