Chantage à Soho

Clunkily made, but score and acting are good. And the set is decorated by a bevy of would-be models. Augie comes out of prison and finds his old vice racket has been taken over by the sinister Harry H Corbett (Gollar). So he dreams up a new scam, thanks to Donald Pleasance's out of work photographer he meets down the pub. Pleasance (Jessel) provides the business front by taking snaps and running a model school. Meanwhile Augie uses the premises for blackmail. Little does he know that the most beauticious of the girls is an undercover cop. Aaaaah, Britain could really do gangster movies in those days.

THE SHAKEDOWN is a fine British thriller and one of the best B-movie crime films I've seen from the era. It's a film blessed with a strong cast of familiar faces and an interesting, atypical storyline that's much, much more than your usual detective-pursues-robbers type tale from this era. The action is centred in and around a photography studio, where an ex-con has apparently gone straight after serving a long jail term. However, the studio is a front for something much more sinister, and the police are baffled on how to proceed.

The underrated star Terence Morgan (CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB) takes the main protagonist lead as a character you love to hate. Certainly he has much more depth of character than is usual for a stock villain in these films, and you even end up admiring his bravado at some points. The rest of the (excellent) cast includes the lovely Hazel Court as a top model, Bill Owen as a ne'er-do-well, Robert Beatty as the detective, Donald Pleasence as an alcoholic photographer, Eddie Byrne as a barman, Gene Anderson as a gangster's moll, Harry H. Corbett as a criminal, Paul Whitsun-Jones as a boozer, Edward Judd as a barber, and the likes of Angela Douglas and Jackie Collins as young models. That cast alone is rather incredible.

The cherry on top is really the quality of the script, by director John Lemont (of KONGA infamy) and Leigh Vance (WITNESS IN THE DARK). It twists and turns all over the place and even if you have some idea of what the ending is going to be, you've never quite sure what's going to take place along the way. The sequence in which Morgan robs his former accomplices is my favourite moment and a real highlight in an undeservedly forgotten minor film.

This film should be studied by all who seek info on a type of film popular for a while in 50's and 60's Britain. Although obviously of limited budget, it fielded an unusually fine cast including several stalwarts and many actors and actresses - Hazel Court, Donald Pleasance, Harry H Corbett who went on to greater things and starred the extremely underrated Terence Morgan,three years before he became known as TV's "Sir Francis Drake". The film is also something of an historical document, bringing back a time when nightclubs were uncommon, close and intimate and hoping to cater for a select clientelle instead of loud and bleary as they are now. The plot has holes in it but the acting is of a high standard which more than redeems the film.

So far nobody has commented on the truly hilarious title song which is sung in a club scene and over the credits at the end.Films of that era used to like to have a title song as a tie in.The lyrics of this are brief but memorable.The poor songwriter could only come up with "slakedown" and "askdown" as rhymes for shakedown.it has to be heard to be believed.The film itself is a very enjoyable example of a British 1950s gangster film.Mind you poor old Harry H Corbett doesn't look as if he could kill Sooty let alone Terence Morgan.His accent varies tremendously starting off as mid Atlantic.Donald Pleasance gives an inspired performance as a seedy photographer.However as to the blackmail racket,would it have been possible to blackmail someone for taking photos of a nude model.After all married men went to the still open Windmill Theatre and nobody blackmailed them.A bit quaint really,however a very entertaining film nonetheless.Plaudits to distributor Renknown for such a fine print.

Terence Morgan is released from prison. He can't go back to running street walkers; that racket has been taken over by another hood. He meets up with down-on-his-luck photographer Donald Pleasence and decides on a new racket, which he finishes by hitting the guy who took over his racket. On the surface, it's a fashion photography studio run by Pleasence, with a modeling agency and school; the real money is from letting people take 'art studies' of nude women.... and blackmailing them. It's nice while it lasts, but how long before the cops and underworld take notice?

Morgan is pretty good as the tough man with a few soft spots, including Pleasance and modeling student Hazel Court. It's an interesting mix of crime and character study. Philip Green's jazz score Is pretty good, but it becomes repetitious, particularly when it's woven into a nightclub score.