Impact

A routine quickie offering from the Butchers studio that doesn't exactly catch fire. Conrad Phillips is always watchable and does well with his role as a revengeful newspaperman out to get 'The Duke'. There is real chemistry in the scenes with sexy Anita West (of short lived BLUE PETER fame), but absolutely no chemistry at all with his rather underwritten girlfriend Diana (Linda Marlowe).

George Pastell plays the chief villain by the book- to many in my generation he will always be remembered as the twitchy train conductor in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

Otherwise the usual fun is to be had spotting familiar locations and actors who went on to greater fame in other vehicles- such as the ever-dependable Ballard Berkeley (FAWLTY TOWERS) and Mike - billed here as Michael - Pratt (RANDALL & HOPKIRK deceased).

Dozy, formulaic, B-movie crime story which must have cost about three quid to make, featuring all the usual ingredients of the low-budget genre: 1. the wooden hero (Conrad Phillips, who co-wrote it) with pretty but otherwise pointless girlfriend; 2. the 'Mr Big' villain, plus equally pointless Moll, who uses a night club as a front for his crimes (and which appears to be financially viable despite being populated largely by his own henchmen); 3. Clueless coppers, who only appear at the start of the film in order to arrest the wrong man; 4. A banal script which avoids any kind of continuity of motivation or behaviour, so that any kind of irrational action will do.

The plot concerns ... no, let's not bother about that. Of virtually no interest (and therefore the most interesting thing about this film) is the appearance of Ballard Berkley, trying to be a tough-talking newspaper editor, who later became a stalwart of Fawlty Towers, and who must have forgiven Phillips enough by the 70s for writing this dross to appear with him in one episode -The Wedding Party. It is mercifully short, and no one gets hurt.

This is a 1960s B movie short. It is a poor film which starts interestingly enough but quickly loses impact.

It is low budget that inspires to be some type of American gangster flick. It contains some straightforward performances, a dicey script with more holes than a colander.

It is rather surprising to see Ballard Berkeley better known as the Major in Fawlty Towers as a younger rather straight talking newspaper editor.

Conrad Phillips plays Moir, an experienced crime reporter who has been pursuing a gangster known as the Duke.

The Duke in retaliation fits him up for a train robbery and the police arrest him and he is sentenced to two years in jail. In jail Moir plots his revenge.

I have big doubts how the police would think a well known crime reporter can suddenly get involved in a train robbery.

As for the revenge plot. The climax takes place in a cold storage warehouse. It is underwhelming in its sheer hokeyness. I think the filmmakers got bored as it suddenly ends.

A drab little effort which sees investigative journalist "Jack Moir" (Conrad Philiips) framed and convicted for a mail heist. The remaining drama combines all the usual aspects - a local "Mr. Big" - this time hammily played by George Pastell; an incompetent police investigation and - luckily for him, his former colleagues from his newspaper (Ballard Berkeley & Linda Marlowe) who believe him innocent. Once he is released from prison, he is bent on revenge. The biggest snag for me with this crime caper is that they clearly invested heavily in the jazz-style soundtrack and so wanted to get their money's worth - it's intrusive to the point of being annoying and is frequently used to generate tension instead of any script!

Presumably this raw & racy little Butcher's quickie with a neat little sting in the tail, scripted by leading man Conrad Phillips (with the usual noisy jazz score and the cast once more buttoned up against the cold) is set in 1965, since the newspapers reporting the robbery with violence for which the hero spends a year in Wormwood Scrubs are dated November 1963.