Appointment with Crime

This decent British noir is about a petty crook who gets out of prison and is caught between the police looking for a murderer and the crooks who got him put in prison in a smash and grab job. It is a lot grittier than American noir. William Hartnell is very believable as the ex-con and Joyce Howard is fine as the not-too-bright dance hall girl who believes him. American noirs seem to have a sheen of glamor in comparison to this underclass melodrama.

There is a strong homosexual component to the underworld in this movie, with Herbert Lom as an effete foreign crime boss; his chief henchman plays his role as flamboyantly homosexual, just shy of a British comedy. The whole thing looks shot cheaply, which adds to the grime, and the direction and actors don't seem to do full justice to the script, but the net effect is decent. Worth a look.

The story itself is riveting enough to keep you awake all long the viewing, and the finale excellent, bitter, unforgettable. But the directing is too smooth for this kind of topic, scheme. Maybe the the late forties was not yet the best period for gangsters stories; I am sure that in the early sixties, with someone like Stanley Baker as the lead, it would have been terrific. But it remains a rare feature, very underrated in the British film noir history. The 2020's UK crime flicks are lousy for most of them. The director John Harlow was not a great one, he was not Basil Dearden nor Michael Powell or John Boulting.

Petty thief "Leo" (William Hartnell) is left high and dry by his cohorts when a robbery goes wrong. Determined on vengeance when he is eventually released from jail, he sets out to settle accounts with "Loman" (Raymond Lovell) and his lackey "Hatchett" (Victor Weske). Prison and rage have hardened this man, and "Loman", for one, underestimates the determination of "Leo". That's an error he soon rues as he is soon not only cleverly implicated in a murder but also put onto the radar of the formidable "Lang" (Herbert Lom) who has a very non-nonsense reputation! Robert Beatty could hardly be called a versatile actor, so actually fits the bill of the rather plodding "Insp. Rogers" rather well. Indeed, for the most part even the usually wooden Hartnell makes a decent fist of this tautly directed budget drama. The story is hardly an original one, but John Harlow does keep it moving well enough and it's a perfectly watchable afternoon feature.

For Dr. Who fans, this film would be an interesting thing to see. While William Hartnell (the first Doctor) made quite a few movies, he didn't star in all that many...and here he is the star.

The film begins with Leo (Hartnell) doing a smash and grab job at a jewelry store. It goes horribly wrong and Leo's fellow gang members run away and leave him to the authorities. It's pretty doubtful they could have done much to help...but Leo is the type to hold a grudge. When he eventually gets out of prison, he seems to have one thing on his mind....revenge against his old mates. Soon they start dying off...and you wonder if Leo will take them all out during the course of this movie. However, some of the gang members are real tough and clever sorts...perhaps they can stop him before it's too late.

If you like film noir, then you'll probably enjoy this. Hartnell plays a real nasty little rat...sort of like a Jimmy Cagney type but much more vicious. It also has a really dandy ending! Well worth seeing...for Who fans and non-Whovians.

William Hartnell is part of a smash & grab crew led by Raymond Lovell. When Hartnell smashes a jeweler's window, a protective gate drops on his wrists, breaking them, and the crew takes off without him before the police arrives. After serving time in prison, Hartnell wants to get even with Lovell and his crew, by framing him for the murder of his chauffeur, using Lovell's gun. He establishes an alibi for himself through dancer-for-hire Joyce Howard, but police inspector Robert Beatty thinks Howard is a bit too eager to support Hartnell's alibi and digs deeper. Lovell's gun however belongs to Herbert Lom, art dealer by day, Lovell's criminal boss by night. So rather than getting even with Lovell, Hartnell now has to deal with the police, as well as Lom.

Hartnell ('Brighton Rock', the first Doctor Who) plays his character as tightly wound as possible (or incredibly stiff, depending on your point of view), which works well for me. Every time you sorta start to feel sympathy for him, he does something mean again (despite caring for Howard, he still deceives and lies to her to save his own skin). Lom ('Night And The City', 'Hell Drivers') is great as a suave crook. They are the standouts in an otherwise decent but unremarkable cast. I wish Joyce Howard's character wasn't written as naively as it is, it doesn't work too well with the 'street wise' side of her character.

The movie starts out great with a quick set-up and some really nicely done shots, including extreme Dutch angles and shadow-rich scenes. I was hoping for a precursor to the awesome 'Brighton Rock' already, but after a while things start to lose steam. There are still plenty of shadows and decent shots, but the plot becomes unnecessarily muddy and even slow in places. It is however gritty, both in Hartnell's character as in the overall feel. Not a bad effort from director & writer John Harlow (who also directed/wrote a couple of Sexton Blake movies) but it doesn't live up to the great first 10-15 minutes. 6.5/10