The Shakedown.

Renown Pictures Ltd, which were originally founded by George Minter in 1938, is a Production and Distribution company that revives British classic movies and whose restoration of British B-movies is exceptional giving the viewer a chance to see rare films in clarity beyond reproach. And it’s done it again with The Shakedown (1959), another ‘missing’ B-movie which boasts a solid story, played out with a strong cast and could easily be mistaken for the main feature at 89 minutes with an exciting pace that does not falter from start to finish.

 

Augie Cortona (Terence Morgan) instructs one of the models. 

Written and directed by Toronto born John Lemont who entered the film industry in 1935 and worked with the Army Film Unit during WW2. His first feature film was not until 1954 and his best-known is the crime drama The Frightened City (1962) that stared a pre-Bond Sean Connery as a villain. He also worked a great deal in Television.

 

Jessel (Donald Pleasence) 

As far as I’m aware this is the first time that The Shakedown has appeared anywhere on DVD. It stars Terence Morgan (Tread Softly Stranger 1958) as a crook called Augie Cortona who is due for release from prison and shares a cell with a petty crook called David Spelligue (Bill Owen There Was a Young Lady 1953, Dancing With Crime 1947).  Before Augie was incarcerated he run a call girl racket in Soho, London’s red light district. Grassed up by his disloyal partner Goller (a foreign looking Harry H Corbett!) who now runs all of Augie’s previous rackets – but the released jail bird wants them back, or at least to find away of getting back at his ex partner. To this end he robs two of Goller’s henchmen of their latest takings, the proceeds of which are more than enough to set up a photo-modelling agency with Jessel (Donald Pleasence Hell is the City 1969) a professional photographer, who Augie met quite by accident in a public house! 

Thats no way to treat an ex alcoholic! 

Is our ex pimp going straight? Chief Inspector Bob Jarvis (Robert Beatty) certainly does not think so and puts an undercover officer in to the studio. But unbeknown to both the police and Augie, Goller has also placed a plant in the agency. Augustus Cortona’s hard shell falters when he falls for one of the studio’s high-class models Mildred Eyde (the stylish B-movie queen Hazel Court) and starts up a courtship.

 

Augie's courtship of Mildred Eyde (Hazel Court) 

Well shot, this gritty realistic black and white movie is a must for crime film lovers and ‘is possessed of a gumption worthy of the best American B-movie and a welcome alternative to those prim and stodgy British films that are mistakenly called classics’[1] A rather risqué film with its hint of nudity and an indication of elicit sex. It also manages to capture the same sordid and gritty feel of Michael Powell’s classic Peeping Tom (1960), which is praise in its self.

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[1] James Oliver – Offbeat

There Was a Young Lady.

British film director, screenwriter and producer Lawrence Huntington had worked on crime thrillers, a musical, melodrama and farce in the 1930’s and had ‘A’ film experience in the 1940’s but surprisingly slipped to the bottom half of the double bill in the 1950’s to skilfully direct some grand second features. One of these was There Was a Young Lady (1953) a comedy, which he was also responsible for adapting, based on an original story by Vernon Harris and John Jowett.

Produced by Ernest G Roy at the Nettlefold Studies for Butchers Film Services the film opens when we witness two men striking a deal in a London street for the purchase of a diamond engagement ring. David Walsh (Michael Denison), a diamond merchant, returns to his office to face his secretary Elizabeth Foster (the wonderful Dulcie Gray) who immediately points out that the ring he paid  £25 for is not a diamond at all but paste! After a steaming row Elizabeth resigns leaving the incompetent Walsh to run his inherited business on his own except for Irene the typist (played by a very young Geraldine McEwan in her debut feature film) who has a ‘fancy’ for her boss and see’s Elizabeth’s departure as her opening. Meanwhile the ex secretary gets entangled with a smash and grab raid on a jewellers shop. When the gang realise that she has seen their faces they kidnap her and transport her to a large country house whose caretaker is an Uncle one of the gang and has allowed them to stay there while the owners are away. The gang consists of leader Sydney Tafler and henchmen Robert Adair, Bill Owen and character actor Charles Farrell. Except for Tafler all the others treat her with respect, but she has to stay with them until after the next robbery when they will debunk with their ill-gotten gains to somewhere abroad. She does however try to effect an escape, but to no avail, so settles to helping with the cooking and cleaning and telling the gang where they are going wrong with their smash and grab raids!

Huntington has produced a clever script with some great lines. A movie that transports the viewer back to the prime and proper world of 1950’s British comedy where the heroine is tough, the villains are not nasty and the hero gets his girl in the end. A great cast with husband and wife team of Dulcie Gray and Michael Denison outstanding. There is also a small role for Kenneth Conner who became a well-known face in the ‘Carry On’ films. Although the ending is a little trite, and probably one coincidence to many, it is highly recommended and another film well worth dragging out of the discarded B-movie bin by Renown Pictures.

Dancing with Crime.

My main interest in this well paced British crime drama was that it was Dirk Bogarde first real feature film. The only time he had been on screen previously was in a 1937 George Formby comedy caper called Come on George in which he played an extra. Mind you although he had a very small speaking part as a police radio operative towards the end of the 1947 film, you don’t get a full facial shot, but with the voice and profile there’s no mistaking him.  

 

Jill and Ted report their suspicions to the police.

Although a fairly predictable crime drama and yes the fisticuffs could have been a little more realistic, it’s quite a enjoyable wee movie which stars real life husband and wife, Richard Attenborough and the fresh faced Sheila Sim (they married in 1945) who portray a young engaged couple trying to survive in the East End of London amongst black marketeers and rationing. Attenborough is Ted Peters trying to scape an honest living driving his cab. But Teds wartime mate Dave Robinson, credited as Bill Rowbotham but now better known as Bill Owen, is not quite so bothered where his money comes from and does odd jobs for a local gangster who along with his associate work out of an office above the local Palais de Danse. One evening Ted drops wide boy Dave off at the dance hall and then pops in the pub for a pint and sandwich but when he goes back to pick up his cab finds Dave dead in the back of the vehicle with a couple of bullet holes in him!  As normal with this type of movie the police are clueless. So Ted sets out to investigate the two dangerous villains, Gregory (Barry Jones) and Baker (Barry K. Barnes), who use the Palais as cover for their black marketeering. Fiancée Joy Goodhall gets a job as a hostess helped by another of the dancing girls Annette, played by an uncredited Diana Dors in only her second screen role, and are able to keep a close eye on the pair. As you would expect things soon hot up for Jill and Ted.

 

Annette earns her living at the Palais de Danse....

Made at a time when Fish and Chips were known as a fish supper even in London and not just in Scotland! The film did not receive many complimentary reviews when it was released on the 25^th June 1947 but time has been kind to it and now it can be viewed as a film made at the end of WW2 when budgets would have been non-existent and rationing and black marketeering for real.  The strength of this wee movie is in the enthusiasm of its two main stars, Attenborough and his young wife, who put you in mind of the Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five, as a sort of crime fighting two.

 

.... so is in a good position to help our fearless two. 

The director was John Paddy Carstairs who was best known for steering funny man Norman Wisdom to massive box office success through half a dozen undemanding comedies. The original story was by Peter Fraser with a screenplay by our old friend Brock Williams and the DOP was Reginald Wyer whose career spanned over thirty years including such fair as The Man in the Back Seat (1961) and Violent Playground (1958). Made at Cromwell Studios in Southall West London.