Wide Boy

Sidney Tafler as a spiv is sort of believable, and his blond-stereotype girl, needy drink raddled neighbour are the stock characters of low budget b&w. Even 50/60 years ago the compromising letter by a toff was very stale, the unintended shooting would only have been murder in the commission of a crime but the evidence would not have seemed sound. But the main problems are, first, it sounds like a radio play and that the film is like illustrative clips rather than a continuous narrative- you can almost imagine a linear flow diagram. The blow by blow moral argument, finished off by a sermon like speech from Ronald Howard and a body on board let's you know the end titles are due. For much of the film, the sprocket-holes would be more entertaining.

WIDE BOY is a fun little drama with touches of the thriller about it. The reliable Sydney Tafler stars in the title role as a 'spiv' who engages in further crime when he comes up with the perfect blackmail plot. Melissa Stribling, best known for her turn in Hammer's DRACULA, stars as one of the victims alongside a very good Colin Tapley. The film is slow and talky at times, which is no surprise given that it was made at Merton Park studios like so many potboilers of this era, but it has an interesting plot in which the stakes keep on getting raised until the eventful climax. Ronald Howard plays the detective.

Yep. Our wide boy hero can't spell. Well, he can as he thankfully corrects his sign to spell out nylons. And so we follow spiv, wheeler-dealer, wide boy Sydney Tafler (Benny) as he dreams big when he steals a purse from posh-talking Melissa Stribling (Caroline) and uses it to blackmail the adulterous Colin Tapley (Mannering). Hanky-panky does not pay. Well, it does for our wide boy. He sees an opportunity and takes it. However, things don't work out well for him...

The film is ok but made laughable by the awful clipped English that Stribling uses - "ectually, I'm heving..." You mean "actually, I'm having...". Say it properly goddam woman. Couple this terrible delivery with the laughable dialogue spouted by the chief inspector Ronald Howard (Carson) and the film becomes comical on the level of the Carry On series. The police have dialogue like "Whatto. She's a bit of all right." You expect Leslie Phillips to turn up and deliver his immortal "Ding dong!"

Outside of the diction and dialogue, the film does have some interesting moments but you can see how things are going to pan out from a mile off. When I see shots of a train speeding along and then we have our final sequence set on a bridge above a railway, it all becomes too easy, doesn't it.

This is a good example of how to do a lot with relatively little, in this story of a London spiv who makes a bid for the big time and ends up getting in over his head. There are inevitable echoes with "Night and the City", but this low-budget Merton Park Studios production is on a much smaller scale and rarely aims beyond its reach.

There is some fine acting by Sydney Tafler as the oleaginous Benny, and by Susan Shaw and Melissa Stribling as the central female characters, Molly and Caroline, who finally come face to face by coincidence in a meeting that gives Caroline her chance. Ronald Howard is billed rather more prominently than I felt his part actually justified; nominally the chief detective, he has in fact very little to do.

There are limited interior sets, but some clever and effective shots (was that cat specifically staged, or did it just wander up to actor Colin Tapley at an appropriate moment?) within the resources available. Tension is genuine during many of the scenes, and although the protagonist behaves badly more or less from start to finish we end up feeling for him as he is trapped and apparently betrayed.

As with tonight's double-bill companion "To the Public Danger", however, the film suffers in its final moments from what appears to be a desire to insert an explicit public-information moral into the dialogue in case the audience had failed to get it from the story alone: unfortunately it's not made terribly clear just why Benny buys the gun in the first place. (Moral support, presumably?)

Despite having difficulty spelling the word 'nylon', small time crook, Sydney Tafler clearly has designs on becoming a big time operator. He successfully blackmails and consistently outwits eminent surgeon, Colin Tapley, cunningly staying one step ahead of the game, until the clash between Tafler's insatiable greed and Tapley's unshakeable resolve has tragic consequences.

From briefly enjoying the status of nattily dressed man about town, Tafler suddenly finds life passing over him. He's on the lam and desperately short of bread. Having once held all the aces, he now holds only the ignominious distinction of being the ace of jerks!

Meanwhile, the boys in blue are acting with their usual ferocious efficiency - calmly camped outside, allowing Tafler to escape through a stubbornly jamming window, until one bright spark belatedly suggests that it might be a good idea to break the door down.

It's hardly the most head scrambling movie you'll ever see. Low in both budget and ambition, nonetheless, this neat 'n' nifty, no-nonsense noir, ticks sufficient boxes to make it well worth searching out.