Sean Connery plays a West End tough in this Noir masterpiece
Credit: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo
In the golden age of the gangster film – the 1930s to the 1950s – it was all Hollywood, with a bit of French chucked in: Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, George Raft, Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura. The British made occasional attempts – notably Brighton Rock, though that is more a film about religion and, one senses, Pinkie’s repressed homosexuality – but whatever was happening in real life (and there certainly were vicious gangs in Britain), our film industry showed little interest in reflecting it. The censors were a problem, though less censorious than their American counterparts. Perhaps producers assumed that there was no appetite for scenes of brutality and violence: Jack Warner being shot by the minor-league hoodlum Dirk Bogarde in 1950’s The Blue Lamp (still, I believe, one of the finest British films) was about as far as studios or audiences were prepared
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This rollicking crime thriller gets off to a pulsating start with Norrie Paramor s spot on theme music, featuring a guitar solo from The Shadows Hank Marvin and with a camera placed in a front of a car covering half the perimeter of Soho where the action (and there s a lot of it) takes place.
This is 1960! The protection racket ‘business’ was in its heyday and Reggie and Ronnie Kray were in their prime. We witness a ‘little drinker’ - that is to say a private members club, being smashed up because the proprietor has been remiss with his dues. It must be said that the gang of extortionists led by Frankie Farmer (played by Patrick Jordan and not to be confused with