Another Noel Langley screenplay, this one is very much not the comedy his other work might suggest. It certainly grew on me over the course of the film, because it's easy to find it rather silly at first, as there's some overwrought acting, unconvincing cockernee gansterism and Trevor Howard, the epitome of stiff-upper-lip upper middle-class Englishness (see especially Brief Encounter) playing our definitely hard-bitten hero with a line in pithy cynical Humphrey Bogartesque quips that also manage to be quaintly old-fashioned and British (he says sarcastically "I believe you, thousands wouldn't" on at least two separate occasions, which is something my father used to say to me when I was very little, and to make matters worse, instead of making the second part sort of a throwaway, he says it slowly and bitterly). And it never gets less silly, really, but is such a fun plot with a convincingly nasty gang boss antagonist that effectively ratchets up the tension exponentially as we race towards the denouement, that all is forgiven by the end.
To sketch it in outline: we begin with what looks like a funeral procession, as a coffin is being carried into a funeral parlor ("Valhalla") in some down-at-heel part of London (Lambeth is mentioned). Amusingly, the building has "RIP" in huge letters on the roof, a decoration that will feature prominently at the climax. Once inside we see that the coffin is in fact full of contraband and the pallbearers all members of a criminal gang. Key figures are the tall, flamboyant boss
whom everyone calls "Narcy" (sounds like "Nasty" and the computer-generated YouTube captions weren't helping, but it's explained later that it's short for "Narcissus," and he certainly is pleased with himself, as his loud outfits (even in black and white) and prominently displayed self-portraits reveal), an old lady, whom I would guess was London Irish, who keeps talking about her "boyfriend" in a way that is jarring for a lady and a film of the age they are,
and "Soapy," the skinny, middle-aged-and-worried looking second in command. Anyway, Narcy announces that there's going to be a new member of the gang that will "class them up," whom we very soon meet in a bar, where he's already soused and drinking with his bottle-blonde girlfriend whom Narcy seems to find fascinating. This is Trevor Howard's Clem Morgan,
who served with distinction in the war just finished but is out of work. He doesn't seem that pleased at turning to organized crime, and indeed is so lukewarm that he makes his joining contingent on a coin flip, but joins up anyway. And when next we see him, he is one of the pallbearers and it seems to have done wonders for his alcoholism, because he's suddenly deadly serious, and when it emerges that this coffin contains drugs (although exactly what kind I'm not sure, because they use some ludicrous pseudo-hipster jargon term ("talcum"?) for them, and he kicks up a stink that offends Narcy. However, Granny mollifies them and it is claimed that this is a one-off favor for an affiliated gang, and Clem agrees to stay on (although he confides in the girlfriend (whom he is surprised to see coming out of Narcy's office, where she claims she was just waiting for him) that he plans to get out very soon. Anyway, Narcy has not forgiven Clem, and on their next job sets him up as responsible for a copper's death, and he is left unconscious at the scene and sentenced to 15 years (which at least keeps him on the wagon).
He is told that his sister has come to visit him (and we get a first taste of his line in bitter quips with his badinage with the guard who brings him this news) and he isn't keen to see her - especially since he doesn't have a sister - but discovers that it's Narcy's girl, Sally, a showgirl, played by an actress Sally Gray
who was a big enough star at the time that she was top billed for whole film, but who only had a short career before marrying a Baron and retiring to live in a castle (I have to say that, while quite a looker, she is guilty of some of the more egregiously overwrought acting in the film, and just sounds way too posh for her role). She is there because Narcy has indeed dumped her for the blonde who was supposed to be Clem's girl and is willing to offer him help in busting out to help her get revenge. He is very suspicious and sends her off with a flea in her ear, but word gets back to Narcy anyway and he storms in on her backstage, and in one of the shockingly violent interludes that really make him as a hateable villain, beats her up.
She is rescued by Soapy's girl, Cora, who will play a larger role later.
Meanwhile, we learn that somehow (!) Clem has managed to escape by himself! (Seems like that's a bit of a wasted opportunity - prison escapes make up entire films, and just to have the escape yadda-yadda'd over is almost bizarre.) We then get a montage of his exploits, including stealing clothes and getting shot in the back by a farmer's shotgun. Then there's a strange interlude when he's taken in by a woman (who is either played by a good actress doing a very strange character or a bad actor who is genuinely weird, especially in the way her mouth doesn't seem to move right when she speaks) in a large remote house and treated strangely kindly (even getting a bath, new clothes and a meal) because, it turns out, she wants him to kill her drunken husband (who isn't abusive as you might expect, he just seems like a rather congenial, if hopelessly addled, dipso). After unwisely handling the revolver she provides
he beats his retreat calling her crazy (although we do discover that Clem has actually killed somebody before - one of the guards at his prisoner-of-war camp in WWII). She then realizes she can frame him, and holding the gun with a napkin, empties all the chambers into her hapless spouse. And so the manhunt for Clem gets even more serious. We see him hitchhiking and then there's a tense scene as he and the lorry driver go back and forth, with the driver's questions getting more and more pointed until... Suffice to say, Clem manages to make it to London. This sets off the last act of the film where he tries to find Soapy, who is a witness who can clear his name (at least about the dead peeler) while Cora helps Soapy hide from Narcy, who wants to tie up loose ends. Clem manages to make it to Sally, who falls for him while pulling the buckshot out of his back with tweezers.
Meanwhile a shrewd detective is also racing Narcy to the various players in this drama, and it all leads up to a showdown in Valhalla,
where Clem gets to show off his skill with fisticuffs. But if you're expecting a happy ending...
I struggled for a good analogy for this film, and I think one of Cagney's early gangster films is a good parallel. You get the same snappy dialogue and larger-than-life characters, but with the same rather fatalistic (albeit pre-noir) view. One forgives Cagney for the cartoonishness because of his sheer charisma, and somehow that kind of heightened reality works better in America. But this is a valiant attempt to transpose those elements to the hard times of post-war London, and in general it's a rollicking success. (I'd not heard of its director (although I see now he directed the excellent Went the Day Well? a rare Ealing non-comedy) who is listed merely by his last name in the opening credits (who does he think he is, Madonna?) but he does a fine job of heightening everything with stark lighting
and excellent sets and locations.) Its main weakness is, I would say, in the main couple. You never really buy Howard as the Cagney-surrogate (if it was a French New Wave film he'd be Belmondo) and as I said, Sally's acting occasionally sets the teeth on edge. But the supporting players are more successful (perhaps because you buy them as cockneys) - a personal favorite being the canny Granny-with-a-boyfriend. And as it's free on YouTube, you've no reason not to watch it!
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