Scotland Yard hires an MI5 undercover agent called Layton (William Sylvester) to infiltrate a professional gang of bank robbers and jewel thieves lead by James Dawson (Anthony Dawson). Going under the name of Steve Ross, Layton uses the phoney criminal background the Yard have given him and he is quickly accepted by the gang. He discovers that they are planning a £750,000 diamond heist from a major London jewellers and they have picked him to plan it. Layton falls in love with Ruth Lombard (Mai Zetterling), the widow of a former gang member, but she soon discovers his true identity and threatens to shop him. Layton switches sides and tells her that he will use his share of the loot so they can start a new life together in South America. But will his plans come unstuck?
Refreshing and intelligently thought out British crime drama, which marked the very promising debut of Cliff Owen as a director. Best known for comedies like The Wrong Arm Of The Law (Peter Sellers), two of Morecombe and Wise's big screen vehicles and TV sitcom spin offs such as Steptoe And Son; he also directed the splendid heist thriller A Prize Of Arms (Stanley Baker), which suggested a versatile talent that, sadly, the British cinema never used to its full potential. Going by what he did make, we are tempted to wonder what many other British films of his era would have been like had he directed them rather than the people who actually did.
This second feature boasts a rather charming (though hardly realistic, I suspect) portrayal of London's underworld in which the crooks are treated sympathetically and, on the whole, like good ordinary people. American leading man William Sylvester skilfully plays the hardboiled, lone wolf MI5 man who finds a sense of purpose in his life in his involvement with the gang and his new found happiness with the beautiful Ruth. Prior that he describes his life as "I needed nobody and nobody needed me". There is a moving scene in which his Scotland Yard contact (played by the ultimate b-pic copper Victor Brooks) tells him that he "wouldn't want to be in their world" because they have "no honour, no trust" dismissing their only motive as "greed". A rather annoyed Layton replies "How do you know? I found them different, just ordinary people, a little mixed up trying to make a living dishonestly." The down to earth insight continues in a scene in which a tacky detective drama is playing on the TV and one of the crooks turns it off in dismay asking "Why don't they show what the underworld is really like?" "Then they would have to portray us as ordinary people just trying to make a living and the public wouldn't stand for that" is the reply.
Good humoured, moving and thought provoking throughout, Peter Barnes' screenplay is laced with lots of memorable lines and dialogue. The emotional element between William Sylvester and Mai Zetterling's characters is powerful and we find ourselves sympathising with them throughout their predicament. The climax is also much more effective than that of the average British b-pic. No, I won't give the ending away, but it really is emotionally satisfying and rather tragic in its own way leaving us with something to think about long after the end credits have rolled.
Available on DVD as part of Network's marvellous The British Film collection.
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