User Reviews

Director: VERNON SEWELL. Screenplay: Vernon Sewell. Original screen story: Vernon Sewell and Pat McGrath. Photography: Geoffrey Faithful. Film editor: Peter Graham Scott. Art director: John Stoll. Producer: George Maynard.

An Insignia Films Production. Never released in the U.S.A. U.K. release through Eros: December 1954. Australian release through British Empire Films: 16 December 1955. 6,343 feet. 71 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Fred Martin, once a convicted safe-breaker, is going straight and driving a radio-cab. Cruising in the Kensington High Street, he sees an apparently elderly woman rush out after holding up the cashier of a travel agency. When she leaps into a car, Fred immediately gives chase, but is forced to retire when his cab crashes.

A short while later, radio-cab chief McLaren receives an anonymous letter telling him of Fred's criminal record. McLaren, who already knew the facts before engaging Fred, is so incensed that he takes the letter to the police.

Sniffy Taylor, a small-time crook and stool-pigeon, is found dead in a car, apparently from natural causes. The police know that Taylor was about to give them vital information regarding a series of successful safe-breaking jobs that have been giving them considerable worry.

Playing a "hunch". Chief Detective Inspector Rawlings of Scotland Yard, arranges with McLaren to "sack" Fred, hoping the gang will contact him. The only people in the know are McLaren, Fred, and his girlfriend, Myra, who runs the switchboard at radio-cab headquarters. (Alpha DVD rates at least 7/10).

COMMENT: Well now, this is more like the Vernon Sewell we all know and love, not the Vernon Campbell Sewell of "The Silver Fleet". Actually, this effort rates a shade above the level of the average British "B". Of course the whole idea of using taxis in a crime caper is not a new one and the plot itself is very familiar. And with one or two exceptions (Sonia Holm as the ruthless Jean e.g.), the cast is uninteresting (Sam Kydd is miscast), if adequate.

What raises the film is its use of actual locations, two or three striking touches in composition, fair pacing, more action than usual, a larger number of sets and locations than usual and generally higher production values.

Lana Morris is just right as the coldly impersonal radio voice but unfortunately she carries this mannerism over into her other scenes. By the same token, Jimmy Hanley tries too hard to be a personable actor — which is very appropriate when he is inducted into the gang, but he too carries this mannerism much less appropriately into other scenes.

Fortunately, the dialogue is less stilted than the norm and has a few natural touches of humor. True, the characters are basically one-dimensional but the scriptwriter/director has made some effort to breathe a bit of life into them. We love the scene in which the police raid the wrong bank and our old friend Ian Wilson emerges from the cellar.

**SPOILERS**British crime drama involving an ex-convict taxi driver who gets involved with this gang of bank robbers headed by someone in the film known only as "The Governor".

It's not that paroled safe cracker Fred Martin wanted to go back to his former life of crime. The fact is that Fred was blackmailed to become a criminal by "The Governor" who sent his employer cab garage owner MacLaren a letter telling him of Fred's previous, behind bars, address. Despite Maclaren being very sympathetic to Fred's problems as an ex-con looking to go straight he plays along with "The Governor" by giving into his blackmail and having Fred fired. It's then that Fred with no jobs, because of his past criminal record, available to him is forced to go back to his old job as a safe-cracker in "The Govenor's" bank robbing gang. What "The Govenor" doesn't know is that Fred, together with MacLaren, are working with the police to put his organization out of business and behind bars.

The irony of all this is that Fred problems really started when he earlier tried to run down a pair of fleeing robbery suspects with his cab by members of "The Governor's" gang. Now with him becoming a part of the gang's operations Fred's looked upon as a narc, or spy, for the police. This all has Fred secretly set up, by being given false information, by "The Governor" to see if he'll contact the cops before the gangs next planned heist. A trap that the naive Fred, in totally underestimating those he's working for, falls for like a ton of bricks!

Heart-stopping final with Fred's cover being blown as he's beaten and locked inside a freezer at "The Govenor's" secret hideout-or front-an ice cream factory on the London docks. It's with the help of his boss MacLaren together with his girlfriend taxi radio dispatcher Myra together with his fellow cabbies, not to mention the London Police, that Fred is saved from freezing to death, and being turned into a human popsicle, just in the nick of time.

Coming to Fred's rescue his fellow cab drivers not only stop "The Govenor" and his gang from avoiding the long arm of the law but have them both creamed and sugar coated as well. By dozens of 50 pound sacks of raw sugar dumped on them by Fred's fellow cab drivers causing them to become discombobulated and too, by suffering from a sever case of diabetic shock syndrome, numb to make their escape possible.

The always likable Jimmy Hanley plays a radio cab driver who had done a stretch for safe cracking two years previously but was going straight and was happy with his job and his girl played by the always cute Lana Wood. Circumstances alters it all and he is persuaded by the police to capture a robbery gang by going undercover and work for the gang using his old skills. The film is only 70 minutes and fast moving and quite entertaining. Directed by Vernon Sewell who was an under rated British director though not in the David Lean or Carol Reed class.

The acting is fine and it is good to see the great Sam Kydd in a villainous role. Recognisable in small parts are Frank Thornton as a police inspector and Edwin Richfield who is hilarious as a leering cafe owner called Nat. Sonia Holm as the suspicious Jean is quite scary.

There are plenty of external location scenes in London which always enhances a film.

This is another film from the new Matinée Movies.It features Jimmy Hanley who was about to become more famous as the host of "Jims Inn"on TV.When you see this type of film it is little wonder that his film career was starting to tail off.This is a fairly routine crime film as crooks try to burgle a bank.There are so many familiar faces from 1950s British films that the well known phrase "Round up the usual suspects" applies.Actors like Sam Kydd who seemed to turn up in the majority of Britsish crime and war films made in this period.If you have nothing better to do,or like me you are nostalgic for a well spent youth sitting watching this in your local Odeon or Gaumont or ABC it is worth the viewing.I have just watched this film again on the Performance satellite channel and realsied that despite the title there are no murders!

The crime thriller was far and away the most popular genre for the British "B" in the 1950s with almost 300 being released (runner up was comedy with about 100). Tempean Pictures Robert S. Baker commented that with a crime movie audiences always knew where they were, whether it was a murder, someone in danger or someone on the run.

Jimmy Hanley had been in movies since he was a teen, in fact he never seemed to be out of employment, playing spivs ("It Always Rains on Sundays"(1947)) and young constables ("The Blue Lamp" (1950)) with equal conviction, always most at home with working class characters.

Things start off with a bang in this nifty British crime yarn, not the least being that the initial robbery is performed by a sophisticated woman in a fur coat. Fred Martin (Hanley), a local cabbie gives chase and is able to relay the colour, the make of car and the registration number back to the base before his cab is put out of action due to some spikes the crooks throw out on the road. Back at the depot Fred is embroiled in more hot water - a poison pen letter arrives "warning" the cab company about Fred's unsavoury past - a prison sentence for burglary that the cab manager already knows about.

Next day an informant, "Sniffy" Taylor is found dead in his car the day he was due to give evidence in a robbery racket. Knowing Fred's criminal background Scotland Yard (who have been informed about the malicious letters) come up with a plan - Fred is "sacked" (by a very unwilling boss) and has to make it known that he is very upset and bitter about his treatment. It doesn't take long before the gang seek him out (one of the men had served time with him) and he carries the "man with a chip on his shoulder who is only to willing to make some easy money" to a tee. Things get a bit dicey when the "moll" recognises him as the cabbie who gave chase.

This is an interesting programmer (just over an hour) that raises the question of giving a person a fair go who has paid for their crime and wants to put it behind him. There is also a climax with a difference as London cabbies are mobilized to try to pinpoint the desperate Fred's car and there is also superior location shooting in and around London.

Highly Recommended.

Cuddly Jimmy Hanley is an unlikely ex-safebreaker - but he's had experience in the army blowing open German safes. Nasal Cockney Lana Morris is his girlfriend and radio controller. In fact, the war still seems to be going on, showcasing teamwork for the blokes and pretty girls back at base doing a responsible job. And of course it's wartime technology.

It ends predictably as the inevitable suitcase full of used oncers bursts open among a stack of burst sugar bags - with the villains underneath. One of them is not so evil - "Remember I helped you!" - and rescues Jimmy (Fred) from an icy fate.

As with so many films of this time, the best bit is the view of London as it was, with shabby streets of independent shops and cafes. 50s glamour is just coming in as seen in Lana Morris's up-to-date wardrobe: ballet tops and skirts with a nurse's belt. Ah yes, I remember it well!