West 11

A minor but very smoothly made example of British film noir. Director Michael Winner, then at the start of his career, had a strong cast (Alfred Lynch, Eric Portman, Diana Dors, Finlay Currie, et al) to inhabit this starkly photographed little crime melodrama set in London bedsit-land, all tacky Notting Hill coffee bars and smoky jazz clubs.

Lynch makes a downbeat but sympathetic protagonist, more thoughtful than the usual type of hero. Portman plays the clipped-moustache ex-military man-turned-swindler to perfection. Dors is just right, too, as a blousy divorcée ("Young enough to still want a husband; old enough not get the one I want").

Winner plays up the salacious sex element a bit, but a tight Keith Waterhouse/Willis Hall script touches on Lynch's Catholic guilt, and Currie's existential search for 'truth', just enough to give the story a modicum of depth. There's also an evocative score by Stanley Black, with Acker Bilk on sax.

Until latterly a neglected, even scorned, cinema sub-genre, these usually low-budget British film noirs, often superbly photographed, were violent by the standards of their day, and showed the rain-washed streets of cities like Newcastle (Payroll), Manchester (Hell Is a City) and Brighton (Jigsaw), as well as London, could be pretty mean, too.

Winner's next film, The System with Oliver Reed, was even better.

If anybody actually reads my reviews they will say god he has bought a blu ray of an old British film again.

Yes I have and I really liked this one.

I watched Stranger In The House recently and did not like it much.

But I really liked West 11.

Alfred Lynch plays a dodgy chancer who does not want to work.

He hangs out in pre Beatles/Swinging sixties West London seducing girls and eating in cafes and pubs.

I saw pre Beatles London deliberately because the great soundtrack to this is jazz,characters sit about in jazz clubs.

A year after the film was made I assume the jazz clubs would be struggling for customers and Beat Boom would have been in full swing.

I won't give plot details but I feel this film is a great view of society on the edge of change.

Historians and sociologists write about Kensington/Notting Hill and this film might help their studies.

I know Alfred Lynch best from tv drama Manhunt but mut seek out his other work.

I don't know Kathleen Breck at all.

The cast is full of familiar faces in tiny parts,eg David Hemmings.

I think I saw Anthony Valentine in a party scene.

An forgotten classic of its kind I think.

I bet a lot of people who say they are fans of 1960s British cinema will have never seen this.

I don't recall it ever being on tv.

Clearly a lesser known entry in the 'Angry Young Man" Brit flick dramas of the early 60s. Like This Sporting Life, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, Look Back in Anger et al, it's all generational conflict and post war miserabilism.

This new realism wore itself out as the 60s really took hold and for many, things did change and improve. Perhaps the young lead Alfred Lynch didnt make it as Harris or Finney did, but he sustained a career over decades. Here he is supported by some stalwarts of British cinema (Kathleen Harrison, Eric Portman and Finlay Currie) and even the poor young actress (Kathleen Breck) saddled with the role of 'tart' which says everything about the double standard of the time and nothing about the character herself. But as is so often the case, the standout for talent and charisma is the much missed Diana Dors.

Despite her Rank charm school beginnings, her natural acting talent easily makes the most of the ever so slightly ageing good time girl role she has. Her charisma makes her the most compelling of all the players. Star quality that never left her.

Its not great, but its worth a watch, if only as a reasonably authentic period piece. The Director Michael Winner had more commercial success, but this may be as a good a film as he ever made.

Maybe it's because I don't much like Alfred Lynch or Michael Winner films generally, but this film dragged terribly. For me, it was only worth watching for the end credit music played beautifully by Mr Acker Bilk, a haunting piece somewhat reminiscent of Bilk's own 'Bitter Harvest' theme. There were some great 'kitchen sink' films made in Britain in the late 50's and early 60's, but this doesn't make the grade.

This low-key British kitchen-sink movie is much better than it's lukewarm reputation might suggest. It's no masterpiece and it's certainly no "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" or "A Taste of Honey" but it's far from negligible and is worth seeing. It was directed by Michael Winner at a time when he actually made good films and stars the underrated Alfred Lynch as a feckless young man roped into a murder plot by Eric Portman's slimy and possibly bogus ex-army officer. Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall wrote the above average screenplay and it's superbly shot in its Notting Hill locations by Otto Heller. Others in a fine supporting cast include Diana Dors, Kathleen Harrison and Finlay Currie.