Appointment with Crime

This decent British noir is about a petty crook who gets out of prison and is caught between the police looking for a murderer and the crooks who got him put in prison in a smash and grab job. It is a lot grittier than American noir. William Hartnell is very believable as the ex-con and Joyce Howard is fine as the not-too-bright dance hall girl who believes him. American noirs seem to have a sheen of glamor in comparison to this underclass melodrama.

There is a strong homosexual component to the underworld in this movie, with Herbert Lom as an effete foreign crime boss; his chief henchman plays his role as flamboyantly homosexual, just shy of a British comedy. The whole thing looks shot cheaply, which adds to the grime, and the direction and actors don't seem to do full justice to the script, but the net effect is decent. Worth a look.

The story itself is riveting enough to keep you awake all long the viewing, and the finale excellent, bitter, unforgettable. But the directing is too smooth for this kind of topic, scheme. Maybe the the late forties was not yet the best period for gangsters stories; I am sure that in the early sixties, with someone like Stanley Baker as the lead, it would have been terrific. But it remains a rare feature, very underrated in the British film noir history. The 2020's UK crime flicks are lousy for most of them. The director John Harlow was not a great one, he was not Basil Dearden nor Michael Powell or John Boulting.

Small-time hood Leo Martin (William Hartnell), fingered by the coppers when his colleagues abandoned him after a botched smash-and-grab, swears revenge when he gets out of the joint. I must admit that I watched this British crime-meller because it starred Hartnell, the 'First Doctor' in the Dr. Who canon, but he is pretty good in a stiff way as the vengeful, amoral con (other than 'gangster honour', his character doesn't have many redeeming qualities). The story is pretty bleak, with the criminal life coming across as seedy and unpleasant rather than dangerous but slightly glamorous, as is common in many American films. Joyce Howard is a standout as Carol, a 'taxi dancer' working for 6p/dance at a sleazy nightclub, who initially befriends Leo and believes his protestations of innocence and good intentions, as are Herbert Lom as the crime boss and Alan Wheatley as his mincing, effete minion. Also worth mentioning is Ivor Barnard as a diminutive but menacing hitman. The melodrama is laid on a bit thick, especially in the first 10 minutes, and film is choppy at times, suffering from poor editing either in the initial production or afterwards when dealing with the censors (an abrupt cut from a pivotal 'torture' scene suggests the latter). The buildup to the climax is good but the ending is a bit flat. All in all, good but not great. Anyone wanting to see a pre-Who Hartnell play a hardcase would be better off watching 'Brighton Rock' (1948), in which he plays Dallow, the second-in-command to psychotic gangster 'Pinkie' Brown (David Attenborough).

Right before the final few moments of 1946's "Appointment with Crime," I realized I saw it many, many years ago - the final scene is very striking.

William Hartnell plays Leo Martin, who went along with a robbery scheme and was badly injured and wound up in prison while the other perps went free. When he is released from prison, he plans his revenge.

One of his ex-partners, Loman (Raymond Lovell) runs a dime a dance joint. Leo wants a job from him and subsequently learns that the job, a jewelry store robbery, was actually planned by someone else - Gregory Lang (Herbert Lom), an art dealer.

Leo comes up with a way of framing Loman for the murder of the other partner, and then blackmailing Lang, whose gun was used. He also gives himself a great alibi for the murder. At the time it occurred, he was at the dance club monopolizing the time of Carol (Joyce Howard).

Lom is appropriately classy and slimy at the same time. Hartnell is scarily effective and manages to talk without moving his mouth very much.

I have been working off of a list of noirs and near-noirs - many of them atrocious - and this is a cut above those I've seen.

William Hartnell is part of a smash & grab crew led by Raymond Lovell. When Hartnell smashes a jeweler's window, a protective gate drops on his wrists, breaking them, and the crew takes off without him before the police arrives. After serving time in prison, Hartnell wants to get even with Lovell and his crew, by framing him for the murder of his chauffeur, using Lovell's gun. He establishes an alibi for himself through dancer-for-hire Joyce Howard, but police inspector Robert Beatty thinks Howard is a bit too eager to support Hartnell's alibi and digs deeper. Lovell's gun however belongs to Herbert Lom, art dealer by day, Lovell's criminal boss by night. So rather than getting even with Lovell, Hartnell now has to deal with the police, as well as Lom.

Hartnell ('Brighton Rock', the first Doctor Who) plays his character as tightly wound as possible (or incredibly stiff, depending on your point of view), which works well for me. Every time you sorta start to feel sympathy for him, he does something mean again (despite caring for Howard, he still deceives and lies to her to save his own skin). Lom ('Night And The City', 'Hell Drivers') is great as a suave crook. They are the standouts in an otherwise decent but unremarkable cast. I wish Joyce Howard's character wasn't written as naively as it is, it doesn't work too well with the 'street wise' side of her character.

The movie starts out great with a quick set-up and some really nicely done shots, including extreme Dutch angles and shadow-rich scenes. I was hoping for a precursor to the awesome 'Brighton Rock' already, but after a while things start to lose steam. There are still plenty of shadows and decent shots, but the plot becomes unnecessarily muddy and even slow in places. It is however gritty, both in Hartnell's character as in the overall feel. Not a bad effort from director & writer John Harlow (who also directed/wrote a couple of Sexton Blake movies) but it doesn't live up to the great first 10-15 minutes. 6.5/10