Solid Brit-Noir can’t quite live up to the potential of a mouth-watering cast (Stanley Baker, Richard Basehart, Joan Collins, John Ireland, Gloria Grahame, Laurence Harvey*, Margaret Leighton, Robert Morley), but gets darn close. Especially in its down-to-business final act. A glance below the line shows why: soon-to-direct producer Jack Clayton; a score by Georges Auric between WAGES OF FEAR, ROMAN HOLIDAY and LOLA MONTES; Hammer Pictures go-to EastmanColor lenser Jack Asher, here in crepuscular b&w; and an early credit for co-writer/director Lewis Gilbert, later a major James Bondsman after SINK THE BISMARK and ALFIE. A prologue shows four desperate men caught in destiny’s maw before jumping back in time to show how they got there. Pregnant young wife flailing under neurasthenic Mother’s thumb in spite of a husband’s urging to get away (Collins; Basehart). Washed-up boxer with £1000 in savings after 12 years in the ring lost by the wife (Baker; Rene Ray). Career military man gone AWOL when his actress wife starts an affair (Ireland; Grahame). Irresponsible wastrel son, scrounging off the wife while waiting for Sir Dad to die (Harvey, Leighton, Morley). Each story strong enough to support a feature, here filling two acts to believably get the four men together and not quite as believably into an ad-hoc botch of a Postal robbery. There’s even a moral: Never rob a money truck with a sociopath. Especially when the old Hollywood Production Code is still in place. A few scares can still make you jump, but it’s the quality of the cast that ultimately makes this one stand out.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Fate and futility gives this the tone of a John Huston classic. Try it with THE ASPHALT JUNGLE/’50. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-asphalt-jungle-1950.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Harvey only 26 and looking even younger, but don’t worry, he’s already a horse’s ass. Revoltingly posh in a bespoke suit.
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