The toughest picture ever made in Britain!
When a robbery at a racetrack goes wrong ex-con Johnny Bannion is caught and sent back to prison. He won't tell the rest of the gang where he has stashed the loot leading to violent consequences.
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Character
Classical in form, earnest, grave and resolved.
- classical in formformally daring
- earnestironic
- gravecomic
- resolvedopen-ended
- character-ledplot-driven
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Reviews on TMDB
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Tastebuds's numbers.
- CinemaSerfon TMDB · Feb 20237/10
Stanley Baker is effective here as the smart-assed hoodlum "Bannion". Recently released from prison he and some associates cleverly devise a plan to relieve a race track of it's £40,000 takings. He hides the loot in a remote field but his cockiness leads the police easily to his door. Re-incarcerated, he soon finds that it's not just the police, but his erstwhile colleagues - led by the no-nonsense "Carter" (Sam Wanamaker) who want the money! Things are distinctly dangerous for the man behind bars and so getting out quickly and retrieving his loot becomes the order of the day. Joseph Losey paces his direction well here and has assembled a strong cast of supporting characters - not least Patrick Magee as the shrewd and ruthless prison warder "Barrows" and Grégoire Aslan as the duplicitous "Saffron", as this story of greed and brutality gradually edges towards a denouement that is exciting and - to a considerable extent - rather fitting. It's maybe a bit wordy at times but Baker manages to exude a sort of nastiness/decency combination that works well for ninety minutes. It is well worth a watch and is better than many in this British noir genre of the late 1950s.
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Cast
- Stanley BakerJohnny Bannion
- Sam WanamakerMike Carter
- Grégoire AslanFrank Saffron
- Margit SaadSuzanne
- Jill BennettMaggie
- Rupert DaviesEdwards
- Laurence NaismithMr. Town
- John Van EyssenFormby
- Noel WillmanPrison Governor
- Derek FrancisPriest
Crew
- Joseph LoseyDirector
- Alun OwenScreenplay
- Robert KraskerDirector of Photography
- John DankworthOriginal Music Composer
- Reginald MillsEditor
- Jack GreenwoodProducer
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