The Key Man

Lee Patterson is the host of a radio show about criminal cases. He's looking into an old robbery where the loot was never recovered, and one of the robbers ended up behind bars after killing his accomplice. Patterson wants an exclusive story, after hearing the robber/killer was released from prison. In his search for the man, Patterson receives a lot of conflicting information, and also finds himself followed by an unknown person. He manages to track down the robbers' wife, Hy Hazell, and through her finds out the truth about the robbery and the money which is still out there somewhere. But he still has to deal with the person who's not only following him, but also turns out to be a killer himself.

A fairly straight-forward and routine B-thriller, it nevertheless moves at a quick pace and works decently well. The movie is focused almost completely on Patterson, even second billed Hy Hazell ('Stolen Assignment') doesn't get enough screen time to really make a lasting impression. Thankfully Patterson is a decent B-lead actor with enough charisma and energy to hold one's attention. He already worked with director Montgomery Tully and DoP Phil Grindrod on 'The Counterfeit Plan' that same year. That is the better movie overall, but this is still a decent and entertaining thriller. It has a few moments that don't make a lot of sense when you think about it, but for a B-movie that barely breaks the 1 hour mark, a few leaps of logic are to be expected. It even manages to sneak in a quick but decent car chase around London, as well as a fistfight inside a barber salon lit only by a throbbing neon-light. Nothing essential, nothing groundbreaking, but as with most of these B-thrillers there are worse ways to spend an hour of your time. 6/10

Growing up in England in the fifties, this type of film seemed to show up every week on a provincial double bill. Lee Patterson seemed to be in lots of them; Danziger piccies I called them although the brothers did not produce this particular item.

Patterson plays a radio crime reporter looking into who has the loot from an old robbery. One of the robbers has just been released from prison and assorted bad guys are trying to find where he stashed the proceeds.The picture moves along at a decent clip and there is one pretty good car chase. Not inspirational but not a waste of time.

The movie is not available on DVD but Nostalgia Family Video have a good quality VHS version.

The biggest surprise of this very ordinary little potboiler is that amateur sleuth Lee Patterson has a wife - foxily played played by Paula Byrne - while big blonde Hy Hazel is effectively a guest star as a glamorous nightclub singer during the film's midsection.

Veteran cameraman Philip Grindrod exploits the tiny budget to good effect with the usual vivid locations and a couple of sequences dramatically underlit.

Lee Patterson is a popular crime reporter/broadcaster on the trail of a story about a man arrested for manslaughter, on VE Day, released from prison a few years later, who might be hooked up in a robbery of 20,000 pounds with the dead man. He's also got an eviction notice for non-payment of rent, a pretty wife in Paula Byrne who's left him yet again, a supervisor in Colin Gordon who's worried about being sued, an ad in the personals seeking information on the ex-con, and someone following him. Things start turning around when he gets responses to his ad, but the people tell him the man is dead, and then they either disappear or get murdered.

None of which make sense, particularly being broke and being a popular broadcaster, but Patterson is a single-minded fellow when he's got a story, and so he keeps at it. The result is the equivalent of a police procedural, and the settings seem ordinary, form barbershops to untied pubs, to sites around London where the rubble is still being cleared away from the War. Montgomery Tully gets some nice performances out of his actors, particularly Gordon, and a short turn by the supposed dead man's widow. I think the script lays it on a little thick, but it certainly kept my attention throughout.

All the usual crew are behind the scenes to bring us a rather mediocre thriller.Monty Tully brings some good touches such as the fight between Patterson and the barber in a neon lit barber shop.The problem is that towards the end the film makes very little sense.Not clearly explained where he got the £450 from.Of more interest is seeing London in the fifties still with many bombs ites. Also a cafe on the South Bank situated where the BFI South Bank now stands.