West 11

This low-key British kitchen-sink movie is much better than it's lukewarm reputation might suggest. It's no masterpiece and it's certainly no "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" or "A Taste of Honey" but it's far from negligible and is worth seeing. It was directed by Michael Winner at a time when he actually made good films and stars the underrated Alfred Lynch as a feckless young man roped into a murder plot by Eric Portman's slimy and possibly bogus ex-army officer. Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall wrote the above average screenplay and it's superbly shot in its Notting Hill locations by Otto Heller. Others in a fine supporting cast include Diana Dors, Kathleen Harrison and Finlay Currie.

While trying to create a stylish British film noir, Michael Winner unwittingly created an existentialism masterpiece! Only those armed with such expectations will feel that their time is not wasted. Those expecting kitchen sink drama or noir will very probably yawn throughout.

As such, acting in this movie serves its purpose and helps open up the world of boredom, hope and individual aspirations and disappointments. Nicely shot, slowly-paced and with a decent period music deployed to show adequately gloomy passtime activities of the W11 youth and pub-goers of the early 60's, the film satisfies all the criteria required for it to fit into the existentialism category.

Michael Winner dined out for the rest of his life for testing but not casting Julie Christie for a part in this reminder of those far-off days when even Winner couldn't fail to make a watchable film

Another of that select band of films upon whose behalf fate intervened in the winter of 1963 by covering London in a picturesque covering of snow and employing probably the best cast Winner ever worked with - ranging from Finlay Currie to Francesca Annis - just the title and date tell you that you're in for a treat; with a witty script by Waterhouse & Hall, technical collaborators of the calibre of Otto Heller and designer Robert Jones - the latter with obvious relish placing Tretchikoff's 'Green Lady' on the wall of Diana Dors' apartment - and Mr Acker Bilk on the soundtrack.

If anybody actually reads my reviews they will say god he has bought a blu ray of an old British film again.

Yes I have and I really liked this one.

I watched Stranger In The House recently and did not like it much.

But I really liked West 11.

Alfred Lynch plays a dodgy chancer who does not want to work.

He hangs out in pre Beatles/Swinging sixties West London seducing girls and eating in cafes and pubs.

I saw pre Beatles London deliberately because the great soundtrack to this is jazz,characters sit about in jazz clubs.

A year after the film was made I assume the jazz clubs would be struggling for customers and Beat Boom would have been in full swing.

I won't give plot details but I feel this film is a great view of society on the edge of change.

Historians and sociologists write about Kensington/Notting Hill and this film might help their studies.

I know Alfred Lynch best from tv drama Manhunt but mut seek out his other work.

I don't know Kathleen Breck at all.

The cast is full of familiar faces in tiny parts,eg David Hemmings.

I think I saw Anthony Valentine in a party scene.

An forgotten classic of its kind I think.

I bet a lot of people who say they are fans of 1960s British cinema will have never seen this.

I don't recall it ever being on tv.

The beginning of the 1960's introduced a lot of interesting British films, and in my opinion ' West 11 ' is one of the finest. Alfred Lynch was one of the best actors of this period and arguably he was not given enough roles as fine as this. Michael Winner is not among my favourite directors, but somehow he captured well the life of ordinary young people of the pre-swinging sixties London extremely well. The acting is top notch and so is the depiction of the Notting Hill Gate area. By 2024 standards it looks basic but then again ordinary people could afford to live there. The story is simple; a young man tired of routine jobs falls in with a richer man played excellently by Eric Portman who wants to murder his wife, and homes in on Alfred Lynch to do it. Without being at all sensationalist we witness the consequences. The script is finely written, and among the other actors Diana Dors is moving as a woman who feels she can no longer rely on her looks, but does so with stoical resignation. I have no idea why this film is underrated, as it is again in my opinion as good if not better than trendy films such as ' Look Back in Anger ' and ' A Taste of Honey' which I thought were badly cast. An essential London film.