The Gelignite Gang

THE GELIGNITE GANG is a fast-paced British B-picture from prolific director Francis Searle, who made tons of these low budget quota quickies for a couple of decades from the 1940s to the 1960s. The fun title hints at the plot of a sometimes intense cops-and-robbers flick in which an American insurance investigator helps police to search for members of a criminal gang who use explosives to commit their robberies.

Unlike a lot of similar fare from Butcher's Films and the like, THE GELIGNITE GANG doesn't hang around and offers plenty of incident to keep viewers engaged. The imported American star, Wayne Morris, blusters his way through a cast of well-drawn characters, including a young thief whose run-ins with the gang lead to his eventual downfall. The film cleverly plays up a murder mystery angle to the story, keeping you guessing as to the identity of the chief villain, while at the same time keeping the action and suspense bubbling along. It's a B-picture throughout, but a good one.

The device of a gang using street musicians as a cover is ripped off from 'The Tiger in the Smoke.' At least it doesn't have the wild and irrelevant jazz track foisted on to most of these pot boilers, presumably efforts by the musicians' union to secure full employment.

There seems to be only a very thin thread knitting the whole thing together with the fiction between the American 'b' movie actor and the cynical Brit cop. Even the cockneys speak in Standard English, mainly in received pronunciation. Watchable but not riveting.

There seems to be great deal of Sloane Square rather than St Giles' Circus about it. That is to say even the sleazy locations looks recently scrubbed, Shepherd's Bush vs Soho.

As so many did from the USA Wayne Morris took work over in the United Kingdom because roles were not forthcoming over here. And British films wanted to have that American name to insure box office abroad.

Morris is with Anglo-American Insurance and the company insured some jewels that the Gelignite Gang took. So named because they work with explosives in blowing up safes. The gang seems to operate in and around Eric Pohlman's nightclub. Pohlman is a mysterious figure and a few years earlier Sidney Greenstreet would have fitted the role perfectly.

This gang seems to pop out of nowhere and go back into the scenery without a trace. Sandra Dorne who Morris is dating and who also works for the insurance company is the one who figures out how they do it. Talk about hiding in plain sight.

Acting honors go to young James Kenney a young punk who gets in way over his head with this crowd.

The Gelignite Gang is a good British noir film and the ensemble cast functions well.

In this tightly wired, genuinely exciting crime thriller from talented film-makers Francis Searle, and Terence Fisher a series of audaciously mounted, highly lucrative robberies have rocked the nation's Capital, sending the tittle-tatling tabloids into a fear-feeding frenzy, since these deadly efficient, wholly nefarious safe crackers remain at large, confounding the stalwart efforts of world renowned crime-busters Scotland Yard. Charismatic Pulp Fiction archetype, the burly, piston-fisted Insurance investigator Mr. Baxter (Wayne Morris) who so manfully plunges himself into this murderous vortex of vainglorious villainy all too soon finds himself a marked man, as the mercenary members of the altogether dastardly gelignite gang continue to ply their explosive trade, with nary a thought for any of the poor souls caught in the incendiary aftermath! This is a fabulously short-fused, fast-paced, safe-crackingly lean an' mean B-Thriller from true masters of the form, with a worthy cast of comfortably familiar faces, including avuncular, ubiquitous rotund thug-for-hire Eric Pohlman, with some equally nice work from popular actor Patrick Holt, and another witheringly bright and breezy, head-spinningly delicious turn from platinum B-Movie bombshell Sandra Dorne. 'The Gelignite Gang' is a British B-Movie blast from the past that still delivers some slam-bang entertainment, and it's 'safe' to say the sure-footed directors Searle & Fisher have generously infused the super-heated ingredients with some appropriately volatile ingredients!

Better than Crooked Sky which also starred the wide shouldered US detective of this film. The ploy employed by the gang to avoid detection was novel and overall this is worth watching.