Superb location photography by Monty Berman turns a brilliant but complex film noir into one of the great sleepers of the British Cinema. A quota quickie featuring American actors in the leads, this is superbly throwing from start to finish and once it grabs you, it is determined to never to let go. It all starts when American sailor Scott Brady arrives in London to find his brother (John Blythe, playing a professional prizefighter) and gets the run around until he discovers that his brother has been arrested for murder. Upon meeting nightclub singer Mary Castle, he gets even more of a run around and it appears that somehow she is involved in ways that make her a prime suspect. But sometimes people hide things for reasons other than the obvious and as Brady gets to know Castle, he sees the dilemma that she is in.
During the course of the film, there are numerous car and foot chases all over London (utilizing some truly obscure locations not normally seen in mainstream films), and Brady is drugged with poison candy and made to appear drunk simply to get him out of the way, or worse. Throughout the film, many characters come in and out of the action for various purposes, so it is necessary to pay close attention to see which side they are on and what their motivations are. Brady is forced to jump over barriers, avoid being hit by cars and at times, it seems that he is about to jump into the driven by the suspected culprits. This makes it thrilling from start to finish with excellent direction and superb character actor performances, and a must for film historians and fans of the various crime genres that dominated classic world cinema. It is obvious that this could have influenced modern filmmakers post-new wave, a bandwagon that American films within the mainstream had notch caught on to as of yet.
During the course of the film, there are numerous car and foot chases all over London (utilizing some truly obscure locations not normally seen in mainstream films), and Brady is drugged with poison candy and made to appear drunk simply to get him out of the way, or worse. Throughout the film, many characters come in and out of the action for various purposes, so it is necessary to pay close attention to see which side they are on and what their motivations are. Brady is forced to jump over barriers, avoid being hit by cars and at times, it seems that he is about to jump into the driven by the suspected culprits. This makes it thrilling from start to finish with excellent direction and superb character actor performances, and a must for film historians and fans of the various crime genres that dominated classic world cinema. It is obvious that this could have influenced modern filmmakers post-new wave, a bandwagon that American films within the mainstream had notch caught on to as of yet.