Recoil

The interesting thing about this film is the psychology. Dr. Michael Conway is a well situated doctor who attends to his duties and takes care of his mother, but he has a brother who is of the opposite sort. After a robbery that goes wrong he is sorely beaten up and almost killed in a car accident but gets away and to his brother to bandage him up. Later he asks his brother to tell the police that they played chess together all evening, and the brother, being a conscientious doctor sticking to the obligation of silence and all that, grants his brother that alibi, without suspecting that in the failed robbery his brother accidentally killed the robbed jeweller, who was no one less than Ian Fleming. But the jeweller has a daughter, (Elizabeth Sellars), who happened to be there at the time, and accidentally she runs into the murderer of her father and will never forget his face. The major part of the messy intrigue is about her very roundabout efforts to build up evidence against him - she even deigns to let him woo her just to get closer to him to get him nailed. There are many crooks involved in this, and there are many hard blows and shootings, chases by night and rival gangs trying to gun down each other, piling up the mess, while at least Doctor Michael manages to keep out of trouble, realising far too late that he unintentionally contributed to the mess by protecting his brother. Alas, the main victim becomes their mother. It's thick thriller, well written and well played, and the direction (by John Gilling who also wrote it) is qualified enough. Elizabeth Sellars, fresh from "The Broken Horseshoe", was good at suave ambiguous roles with covert intentions, and here even her father's murderer is deceived by her, while it is impossible to grant Kieron Moore any sympathy.

Jean Talbot watches in horror as her father, a jeweller is robbed and attacked by a gang of thugs, she learns the identity of the ring leader, and poses as a criminal in order to bring him down.

It's a very stylish noir b movie, if you're a fan of this genre, there is plenty here to enjoy, the first thing that struck me was the rather excellent cinematography. Some great road sequences, and the theatre scenes looked impressive, this is a super good looking film.

The story, you could perhaps argue that there isn't anything new here, however, it's refreshing to see what is effectively a female lead in a thriller, Jean is very much the hero of the piece, beautifully played by Elizabeth Sellars.

It's well paced, it's gritty, and features a few rather surprising moments, the main question I had, was Jean going to fall in love with Michael?

John Horsley was rather good as The Detective, Kieron Moore and Edward Underdown were excellent as the very different brothers, and I just loved Ethel O'Shea's subtle but strong performance as the troubled mother.

8/10.

John Gilling wrote and directed this film noir in 1953, 10 years before the excellent "Panic". This story is more conventional, a young woman recognizes her father's killer and she seduces him until she has the opportunity to make him fall. The casting is ok but not fantastic. But there are some good action scenes, from the car chase in the beginning (but we're not yet in 1967-68 when Peter Yates directed "Robbery" and "Bullitt") to tough fights (nearly like in Phil Karlson's films noirs). Worth a look.

No chickie, not even Miss Rogers, moved in heels like a British bird on the case.

It's post-war London and the daughter of a jeweler on house-call is witness to his attack during a robbery, the battery resulting in dad's death, she then determined to identify the killer and bring him to justice. Finding her own lead, she spots the cosh, a charming hood who's stymied the police on a brother's bogus alibi, then assumes a new name to infiltrate the culprit's quarters in hopes of finding evidence to bring an indictment. Stars Elizabeth Sellars as the undercover angel, she with a face that would have this critic boarding one of those 'thousand ships,' her fearless Jean a rare mix of Nancy Drew, Evelyn Keyes (99 River) and Sgt Pepper, Police Woman variety (Dickinson). The ruggedly handsome, Kieron Moore plays her quarry, Nick "a natural product of the miracle age," not so nasty as he is reckless in trying to wrest control of the local racket (Benson), much to the dismay of his older brother, the not so "stodgy" Dr Conway (Underdown) who patches-up the scoundrel after every job while competing for Miss Talbot's hand, one she's trying not to tip. Support comes from John Horsley as the colorless but capable Insp Trubridge, Ethel O'Shea is the physically fragile but mentally muscular, Mom Conway, with Derek Blomfield and Michael Balfour as Nick's operatives. Written & directed for Tempean / Eros by Hammer Studio fixture, John Gilling who, along with scorist Stan Black (OBE) & lensman / co-producer Monty Berman (+ Baker), all keep Recoil engaging throughout. A well-crafted quickie (79m) that builds tension to a thrill-filled, scale balancing climax (3/4).

I watched and loved this crime film from UK because of the Kieron Moore's presence and performance. And an early John Gilling's movie is always worth the risk of wasting eighthy five minutes. The typical noir crime film from the fifties UK, which John Gilling was then the specialist, before offfering us later adventure and horror films...Here, the story proposes nothing really exceptional but the result is gritty, rough, with a good ending, which is very important. Not a masterpiece but still rare and worth watching. Kieron Moore was one of my favorite British actor from the fifties seventies era.