The Six Men

A group of six villains led by Mastermind Peter Bull has been baffling Scotland Yard for years. However, someone is following them around, leading them into temptation and knocking them off one by one, as Harold Wallender's assistant, Michael Evans catches them in the act, when he's not busy pursuing beautiful actress Olga Edwardes.

With dialogue that sounds like it's from a boy's newspaper, a frenetic score by Hans Gunther Stumpf, and lighting by cameraman S. D. Onions that throws dramatic shadows on the bare walls of underdecorated sets, it's the model of a quota quickie that doesn't strain the brain too much. It's a pleasant enough time water for an undemanding audience.

If you like blues piano there are some good close-up shots on the bar scenes.

This is actually quite a quirkily constructed little crime noir. It centres around a gang of thieves whom the police seem incapable of catching. Try as they might, they just cannot garner any evidence to arrest and convict these six men. Suddenly, though - their impenetrable armour starts to slip. One by one, they are apprehended for seemingly unassociated crimes until they gradually come to conclude that it is one amongst them who is setting them up. Who might this traitor be? What is most striking about this drama is the setting. A grim and seamy post war London with bombed-out buildings, a thriving black market and some seedy nightclubs where, perhaps, the less said about the quality of the jazz the better? Peter Bull has one of those instantly recognisable, British Bulldog, faces and he steals this ahead of an otherwise unremarkable cast delivering some standard dialogue before a conclusion that does offer us a twist or two (even if we do, kind of, know who is doing the manipulating). At just over an hour, it's decently paced and delivers adequately for an afternoon B-feature. Not great, but good enough.

The first - and last - feature film made by a director with a background in public information films. This comprises a vividly photographed, tongue-in-cheek Edgar Wallace pastiche obviously swiftly polished off on half a shoestring depicting the downfall of a gang of six criminals engineered by Scotland Yard detective Harold Warrender.

The movie title refers to a gang of six criminals that Scotland Yard is unable to pin a charge against even though they are positive of the identities.

Throughout the film the gang members are, one by one, set up and framed with a charge that ensures a decent jail term – who is pulling the strings for this to occur? It seems the only link is the 'femme' Christina, but how and why this would be an answer is not clear until the final few minutes when the whole mystery is unraveled.

This is a 'B' movie time waster and will not appear in any desirable list. The actors try hard and for the most part do very well with the available material. It is certainly worth an hour of your time, particularly if you enjoy the British B movie Crime / Drama genre.

7 /10 from me