Four young men-Mick (John Malcolm), Ginge (Ray Armstrong), Tim (John Challis) and Kip (Christopher Robbie)- are thrown out of a Jazz club for rowdy behaviour; after vandalising the club sign and attacking a courting couple, they break into the workshop of magician Emilio (Warren Mitchell), who has just popped out for a bottle of plonk. When Emilio returns, the lads terrorise the old man, eventually forcing him to put on a magic show for them, a performance that will cost them dearly.
As others have noted, Mick and his gang of ruffians behave very much like the Droogs from A Clockwork Orange, anti-social behaviour and delinquency very much a hot topic in the early '60s; the film also feels a lot like a story from an old EC comic, where the antagonists receive a macabre comeuppance at the end. As a half hour episode of a TV series like The Twilight Zone, or as part of an Amicus-style anthology, Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? Would have worked very well, but even at the short 'feature length' running time of just under an hour, it feels very drawn out with a lot of unnecessary padding. That's not to say that I didn't have a good time with the film, just that I think that the story would have been better served by a shorter format.
6/10. Worth a watch to catch a pre-Alf Garnett performance by Mitchell, an early turn by Challis (best known as Boycie from Only Fools and Horses), the bluesy theme song sung by Ottilie Patterson, and the final twist. Oh, and Patricia Quinn of Rocky Horror fame is in there somewhere as well.
As others have noted, Mick and his gang of ruffians behave very much like the Droogs from A Clockwork Orange, anti-social behaviour and delinquency very much a hot topic in the early '60s; the film also feels a lot like a story from an old EC comic, where the antagonists receive a macabre comeuppance at the end. As a half hour episode of a TV series like The Twilight Zone, or as part of an Amicus-style anthology, Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? Would have worked very well, but even at the short 'feature length' running time of just under an hour, it feels very drawn out with a lot of unnecessary padding. That's not to say that I didn't have a good time with the film, just that I think that the story would have been better served by a shorter format.
6/10. Worth a watch to catch a pre-Alf Garnett performance by Mitchell, an early turn by Challis (best known as Boycie from Only Fools and Horses), the bluesy theme song sung by Ottilie Patterson, and the final twist. Oh, and Patricia Quinn of Rocky Horror fame is in there somewhere as well.