Die Dirne Jo

There is something engaging about these B-movies and usually one or two points of interest. In this instance that comes from seeing Liz Fraser in a leading role. It would be labouring the point to say she is required to stretch her acting muscles here, and in fact she is required more to squeeze her gargantuan bosom into tight negligees, but I always welcome the chance to see one of Britain's comedy stalwarts in a straight role. In fact the film has a few faces who went on to better things, including an almost unrecognisable Griffith as the cheif villain and a fresh-faced Hemmings before he turned into the corpulent Ken Russell-lookalike he is today. There is also a chance to see Nanette Newman doing what in an early 1960s B-movie passed for acting; she is beautiful though.

As far as being an entry in the British crime genre is concerned the film is rather disappointing. The synopsis I had led me to believe the plot concerned rival gang bosses fighting over a girl. The truth is that gangsterism is used purely as a backdrop for a series of events which befall the student. In fact, despite Fraser's top billing, the film shifts its focus away from Jo Lake and settles on Tom, as soon as he gets the corpse into his car. In that way the film resembles not so much a gangster film, or even an underworld film, as what was called in the 1980s a 'yuppie nightmare' movie, in the manner of AFTER HOURS or SOMETHING WILD.

Despite the strides towards realism which had been made in the genre this film insists on using a very dated portrayal of crimelords. Kleinie is coded as anything but a macho figure: he has a club foot, has an effeminacy about him, is clearly not from the working classes, and conducts operations (about which we learn nothing) from an oak-panelled office lined with books. Furthermore he is played by Kenneth Griffith, not an actor noted for his physical presence or menace.

Having said all that the film does have its own charm and it is remarkable to think, at a time when film production here has slumped, that Britain once had such a thriving industry and produced second features, such as this, to support the main film.

Liz Fraser seems to have been given a script meant for Diana Dors - an impression reinforced when she takes off her dress to reveal a black foundation garment. Rather too cute to be a convincing femme fatale, here she's rather improbably wed to Peter Reynolds.

Lance Comfort directs with style aided by regular cameraman Basil Emmott; while the cast includes an almost recognisably young Ray Smith and David Hemmings who display their aspirations to nonconformity by proposing a toast "To the Bomb!"

As the plot gets crazier and crazier (especially after a club-footed Kenneth Griffith shuffles in) you keep expecting Tony Wickert to wake up and discover It Was All a Dream, but the thing continues to the (very) bitter end.

Somewhat complicated British Neo Noir with two separate stories that eventually connect, connected to a murder that begins with a scheming couple who make their living taking a targeted man back home: sultry blonde Liz Fraser does the rudimentary work while her partner Mark (Peter Reynolds), plays the angry jealous husband aka the badger game...

But while Liz's Jo Lake arrives at a nightclub to find the right prey, back home Peter's killed by a brooding crippled psychopath played by Kenneth Griffith, usually cast as a wimp but not here...

And yet this isn't really his story, or even the first-billed Mrs. Fraser: instead, the young man she'd picked up before realizing her con-artist partner was dead, takes over the leading role...

Enter Tony Wickert as Tom, a plain college student who, celebrating at that nightclub, had just won a hundred bucks, loudly bragged upon by buddies including David Hemmings and Ray Smith, all picking up on three younger girls while a singer croons two spooky, reverberated songs...

One that's also the film's title, THE PAINTED SMILE (aka MURDER CAN BE DEADLY), sustaining in the young man's head after he's accused of murdering the stiff lying-in-wait in the bad girl's apartment and then, in the usual Wrong Man fashion... and with tearful girlfriend Nanette Newman fretting on the sidelines... it's a race-against-time in yet another time-filler b-crime by veteran director Lance Comfort...

Who should have spent more initial energy on the scheming couple before those poor kids got caught up in someone else's scheming ways that we never had time to relish, especially with such a potentially cunning femme fatale in the ultimately underused Liz Fraser.

A plan to play the aggrieved husband bursting in act goes wrong, and instead a soon to be married man finds himself embroiled in a murder.

Despite a rather complex plot, this film is only about an hour long, it's an hour that you'd be well spent watching. Definitely a B Movie, so don't expect car chases or anything elaborate, just a solid mystery.

It's definitely a bit of a pot boiler, easy to imagine this shown before a main feature, but there are several plus points. Best element for me, is of course Liz Fraser, proving she's not just a pretty face, I can't actually recall seeing her cast as a similar character before, she's quite ruthless, it's a quality performance, she of course looks beautiful too, but her acting is the star element.

It's well paced, it's atmospheric, I really would recommend it, 7/10.

I rather enjoyed Kenneth Griffith's performance here as the malevolent "Kleinie". He finds himself caught up in the amateur shenanigans of "Jo" (Liz Fraser) and "Mark" (Peter Reynolds). Now this pair have an habit of using her as a lure for young men whom she invites back to her flat only for her "husband" to arrive and try a little extortion. Well, they hit on the newly flush lad - "Tom" (Tony Wickert) - but when she returns to finish the sting, "Kleinie" calls alerting her to a shocking surprise in the bedroom. The young "Tom" is too drunk to offer much resistance to her rather ill thought-out plan and before he knows it he is being sought by the police for murder. What now ensues is a fairly run-of-the-mill British crime noir as both "Tom" and "Jo" have to stay one step ahead of the pursuing police whilst their nasty nemesis has plans for them of his own. Fraser was a competent enough comedy actress, but here she hasn't really the gravitas to engender much of a sense of danger. Wickert fares slightly better as the not-so-hapless youth - once he sobers up - but there isn't much jeopardy here and as the plot shuttles along we are well aware of how things are going to turn out. It's only an hour long, though, and Lance Comfort doesn't let it hang about - it moves along well enough with a basic but adequate production and a rather hectic score from Martin Slavin to keep it watchable, if forgettable.