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aka I Promised to Pay.
"your payroll is as safe with us as it is in the bank."
A gang headed by Johnny (Michael Craig), plan and execute an armed robbery on an armoured car. From the off there are cracks between them, cracks that splinter when their carefully laid plans go wrong. They manage to make off with the loot, but only at the expense of two dead, one of the gang and the van driver. From then on they not only have to keep ahead of the police, but also have to contend with the driver's wife (Billie Whitelaw), who is after revenge.
A wonderfully gritty British crime caper, with a suitable big band soundtrack. It plays along with the standard crime film formula's, (right down to the use of a Jaguar as the getaway car), but uses them to good effect. The initial exhilaration of the robbery, gives way to viciousness and brutality, then nerve jingling tension as the gang quickly fall apart. Add some great performances especially from Whitelaw, Craig and Tom Bell (as a hot headed gang member), and a playful script, and you have an entertaining crime caper that will more than fill that 90 minute gap in your life.
aka La Vampire Nue
Late at night an unknown woman (Caroline Cartier), wearing only a negligee, is chased through the streets by a gang in animal masks. She bumps into a young man (Olivier Martin), who tries to help but is powerless to stop her capture. He follows her captors to a chateau. There he discovers a secret society run by his father (Maurice Lemaitre), where suicide and vampirism are used as entertainment for the bored upper class patrons. The young man shocked is determined to rescue the girl.
A riot of colour and stunning, often beautifully conceived scenes, enliven this obviously cheaply made and languidly told film. Don't expect to make much sense of this, but just wallow in the absurdity of it all. An interesting but standard vampire film twists half way through, throwing in mutant aliens, but still manages to make it all a little bit boring!
"Alright? I'm always alright on a saturday night."
A ships crew are excited to be back in London on overnight shore leave. They quickly split up to find entertainment. David Lodge goes to visit his 'mother'. The younger sailors head to the pub on the hunt for girls, but end up with prostitutes. One then splits to go up west and ends up in a clip joint and tangles with Freddie Mills when he gets ripped off. Bernard Lee on the other hand, is after a classier night and heads to a fine hotel. He almost gets caught in a honey trap but manages to turn the tables on the blackmailers. Meanwhile John Bonney meets and falls for the quirky beatnik Heather Sears.
For your money you get a bit of everything here, from comedy, music and drama, all on a b-movie budget. A fine piece of pre-swinging London entertainment with the Searchers as a pub band.
aka Lung fu fong wan
"You're a cop. Who told you to make friends with them?"
Ko (Chow Yun-Fat) is an undercover cop who infiltrates a gang of jewel thieves, and soon forges a profound friendship with one of the criminals, leading to conflicted loyalties.
Another role that brought wider recognition to Chow Yun-Fat, as the tormented and conflicted cop. The film is a fantastic Hong Kong actioner that didn't go unnoticed in LA, with a certain Reservoir Dogs mirroring a number of scenes.
"...not to mention the two dead bodies!"
"I told you not to mention the two dead bodies!"
A pair of London traffic wardens (Eric Morecmabe and Ernie Wise) decide to take a holiday on the French Riviera. Once there they inadvertantily get caught up in a spot of jewel smuggling. Claudette (Suzanne Lloyd) one of the gang members keeps them occupied and off the scent.
This was Morecambe and Wise's second attempt at cracking the lucrative film market, and whilst the film is ok, it never catches fire; the script effectively stiffling their likable stage characters and the seemingly spontanious banter, that made stars of them on the small screen.
"Why is it aways that little guys want to start fights?"
The Cloud 9 is a bar where all the teens hang out, but complications arise when a couple of criminals take over the place, and holding some of the kids hostage. The police and the various motley characters in the bar prove powerless to help and it falls to Shorty (Dick Miller), a guy with a chip on his shoulder, to resolve the problem.
A thin but entertaining plot that mainly acts as a way to show performances by The Platters and The Blockbusters. Then we get to watch as the various musclemen and heroes prove to be anything but, as the hostage takers quickly unwind due to nerves. Good little melodrama supposedly based on an episode of a TV show.
"All the tins and bottles I have to throw away. What will become of them?"
John McEnery plays Bartleby, a newly employed accounts clerc, who 'prefers not to' do the work demanded of him. His co-workers and boss are all puzzled by his behaviour, and his boss is determined to keep giving him more chances to redeem himself. But eventually the Accountant (Paul Scofield) has to admit defeat and sacks Bartleby, but this doesn't prevent him from turning up for work as usual.
McEnery plays Bartleby in an almost autistic way, sucking any life out of the character and scenes that he is in; an almost black hole like performance, and I don't mean this in a bad way. The direction adds to this feeling, with a wonderfully inventive view of the city and its buildings. To me its an alagory on the soullessness of the city, with a pervasive sense of sadness that corrodes all.
aka Sorority House. The Bad One.
"You're not human, you're something the sea cast up."
Sabra Tanner (Susan Cabot) flashes back to tell us of her fall. She's a wealthy, attractive, and intelligent member of an exclusive sorority. But she soon starts to ruin the lives of those around her, blaming her uncaring mother for her increasing paranoia and feelings of social exclusion.
A well played out tale of a poor little rich girl and her self made fall from grace. With a running time of 60 minutes it has little chance to out stay its welcome and Cabot plays the angst ridden teen lashing out at the world as if born to it.
"You're not smarter Walter, you're just taller."
As the film opens we meet insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray). He's in a hurry and arriving early at the office he sits and dictates his confession. How he fell for Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) after he meets her to sort her husbands car insurance. How he was sucked into planning her husbands death and claiming on the recently taken out accident insurance, not only that but how Neff planned it so that she could claim under a double indemnity clause, doubling the insurance payout. But like all good plans there is always a thread that snags and unravels the whole thing. This one is snagged by Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), the investigator with a funny feeling that all is not what it seems.
One of the best film noirs from the period, shot full of cynisism, wise cracks and the blackest of humour, all wrapped up in suspense. We start by finding out Neff is a murderer, from there we watch in flashback as whole sorry tale unfolds. Simply a classic.
aka I Promised to Pay.
