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

Tread Softly Stranger.

Directed by Gordon Parry with a script by George Minter, Tread Softly Stranger (1958) was adapted from a stage play called Blind Alley by Jack Popplewell. It features some big names from the period including George Baker, who I remember seeing in The Moonraker (1958) when I was wee lad but who most people will know as Inspector Wexford from the TV series The Ruth Rendell Mysteries that run from 1987 until 2000, the wonderful Diana Dors who appeared in over sixty feature films, admittedly of various quality the best said to be The Weak and the Wicked (1954), A Kid for Two Farthings (1954) and Yield to the Night (1956) and to these I would respectfully add West 11 (1963). Also appearing are talented actor Terence Morgan and the instantly recognisable Patrick Allen.

 

The wonderful Diana Dors.

When good time guy Johnny Mansell (Baker) has to leave London because he owes the wrong people large sum’s of money for his gambling debts he decides to return up north to his roots in the Yorkshire town of Rawborough. It’s here that he joins his brother Dave (Morgan), securing a room in the same rented accommodation. Johnny also meets Dave’s voluptuous and rather unscrupulous girlfriend Calico (Dors) who works as waitress in a local nightclub. Dave struggles to keep his high maintenance girlfriend in expensive gifts and finds himself forced to embezzle £300 from his employer, he then finds out that an audit is to take place and realises that if he does not return the money pronto he could end up in prison. Johnny goes to Kempton Park in an attempt to win some cash to enable his brother to pay back the money before anyone discovers its missing. Will Johnny’s plan work or might they have to resort to other means to repay back the debt?

 

George Baker.

Described as a smouldering British crime drama this black and white noir style film is set in the industrialised North of England with location shooting taking place in Rotherham, Yorkshire. Bordering on the imminent British New Wave with it gritty industrialised setting which adds to its authentic feel only spoilt by its lack of local accents. Reassessed, this forgotten movie is well worth its DVD release as part of The Best of British Collection by Odeon Entertainment.

 

Terence Morgan.

The film was put together at the Walton Studios, Walton on Thames England that in 1903 was the first covered studio in Britain. The studios were closed and demolished in 1961. Incidentally in its final days various costume TV drama’s where made there including 143 episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene.