The End of the Line

Alan Baxter is a writer in London to punch up a play for producer Charles Clay. He settles in a hotel in the suburbs, where he discovers Barbara Shelley. She was a girlfriend who walked out on him with his last hundred dollars. Now she's married to Arthur Gomez, who owns the hotel, a club in London, and runs a fencing operation. Baxter and Miss Shelley work up a scheme to rob Gomez' safe in the club with an ironclad alibi. But their plan goes awry.

Baxter is an immobile drip in the movie, who offers a voice-over commentary throughout the movie in a nasal, creaking voice. Miss Shelley is alluring, and the whole thing is shot cheaply by director Charles Saunders, resulting in a watchable, if mediocre film.

Like a good number of British 'B' films made during the 1950s, this one offers a lead role for an imported American actor whose career had seen better days. In this instance Alan Baxter plays Mike Selby, a writer brought to England to give an American slant on a forthcoming play. The producer's daughter (Jennifer Jayne) finds him accommodation in a country hotel but this proves to be fateful. There he sees his former girlfriend Lilaine (Barbara Shelley) who is now married to Crawford, the hotel owner. She had originally run out on Mike to find someone with money but is now bored and apparently wants to rekindle their romance. After some initial resistance, Mike succumbs to her charms and is eventually persuaded to steal the jewellery that Crawford fences as a lucrative sideline. She concocts an elaborate alibi for him but things start to go wrong when Mike believes he has killed Crawford while stealing the jewels. Then he receives blackmail threats but who is blackmailing Mike, was Crawford really dead and what are Lilaine's real motives?

I was quite entertained by this second feature film which moves along nicely and throws in some twists along the way. However the performances of the two leads could not be more diverse. Alan Baxter seemed wooden and uneasy throughout whereas Barbara Shelley is cool and sexy. If fact her delivery at times reminded me of the young Lauren Bacall but sadly Baxter was no Humphrey Bogart. If possible, catch this film if only to see Barbara Shelley – she looks stunning.

Alan Baxter or a statue or Alan Baxter? Which would you choose? Which did Charles Saunders actually pick for this rather silly and weak crime drama. He is "Selby" a writer sent over from the US to London to help promote a play being staged by "Bruce" (Charles Clay). As luck would have it, his remote hotel is owned by "Crawford" (Arthur Gomez) and guess what - that man's wife also happens to be an ex-girfriend of "Selby" who absconded with his last few bucks years earlier. She, "Liliane" (Barbara Shelley) and he quickly concoct a plan that will see them rob her wealthy husband and abscond with his collection of expensive jewels. Of course it all goes wrong - and soon poor old "Shelby" is wanted by the police for murder - but frankly, the hugely far-fetched plot had long since lost any lustre by the time we get to this stage. There is no chemistry at all to be had on screen and the writing and pace of the drama are pedestrian and sluggish as the characterisations trip over themselves to keep us guessing who anyone can trust and who is, ultimately, driving the game. It does feature some nice photography of late 1950s London, but that's hardly a reason to watch. Sorry - it's just dull.

This is just bad - and really low budget. The cheap, undersized sets make it look as though they filmed it in a private residence.

The lead actor is so wooden, so flat, so passionless you almost laugh at his every line.

Barbara Shelley is priceless. Every outfit, ever pose and every camera angle is chosen to accentuate and highlight her big beaudacious derrierre. It isn't the elephant in the room, it is the main feature.

This is free on YouTube so it is worth seeing, just for laughs.

The writing, acting, sets, dialogue doesn't seem so awful if you watch it as a comedy and not a tawdry drama.

Alan Baxter never amounted to much of an actor, and by 1957 he was increasingly involved in B and TV productions. In THE END OF THE LINE, he is plainly too old, dumpy and unfit to credibly interest female beauties of the caliber of Barbara Shelley and Jennifer Jayne, and that is apparent from the outset. Plus he is too wooden to convey any real emotional dilemma over the killing of a man he just planned to rob.

BIG minus there.

Charles Saunders does a passable job of directing, making competent use of a predictable screenplay whose best feature is a voiceover that comes in fits and starts and appears to be Selby (played by Baxter) ruminating over his downright avoidable decisions that inevitably lead him to crime.

Barbara Shelley has the plum role as the scheming femme fatale with strings pulled by subtle villain Ferdy Mayne, and the screen comes alive when those two are on it.

Photography is strictly standard.

Not a bad watch if you have 62' to spare.