Naked Fury

A reasonable time-filling film of its type. The cast were not given much of a script but some scenes were well acted. It was interesting - and that's what counts. When checking on the cast, Leigh Madison came over as an actress with promise. But what happened to her after 1960? Could anyone let me know? Thanks.

Talking Pictures weren't kidding when they prefaced this nihilistic little crime drama (with a script in which cuts had to be made before it was eligible for a 'U' certificate) about a gang unraveling following a heist with their warning that it contained scenes that might upset younger viewers; especially the truly apocalyptic ending.

Probably patterned after Kubrick's 'The Killing' (with Ann Lynn in the equivalent to Marie Windsor's role in the original), like 'Reservoir Dogs' the robbery itself is not shown, and like Tarantino's film the setting itself hangs heavily over the characters, the most sympathetic of whom is black and whose colour is never mentioned.

It's quite a neat B Movie, the plot is quite clever, a girl is held captive by a group of four criminals, who've carried out a large heist, but have no idea what to do with her. The twist being that her father, the Night watchman was coshed by one of the quartet of robbers.

I quite liked this, it's an intriguing watch, it's pretty clever and delivers a few neat twists, the best of them being where Carol hears a message on the radio relating to her father. The ending is wonderfully dramatic, and features a few cleverly shot scenes, the film work makes the action appear more dramatic then first appeared. It's a good early film for Kenneth Cope, Johnny is one of the more interesting characters, Cope was suave and charismatic.

The problem I have with this film is with the character of Carol, Leigh Madison is fine, it's not that it's her behaviour towards Eddy, it makes no sense, surely she'd have despised him, it oddly seemed she fell in love with him.

How many of these forgotten goodies are out there. Enjoyed it even if it is a little short, 7/10

Reed De Rouen leads the crew back from the heist with more money than they had anticipated. Come tomorrow, he'll arrange for passports and passage. It's all going better than planned, except for having to kill the night watchman and bringing his daughter back to the dilapidated building they use for a hide out. De Rouen thinks it can be easily managed. But he's wrong.

It's another of the cheap B features that Charles Saunders found himself directing, after a fast start more than a decade earlier. Happily, and despite the cast of actors I don't recognize, he has a good script by Guido Coen with some surprises in it, and one or two good set pieces for Walter J. Harvey to shoot as the plans collapse and the cohesion of his gang go along with it. Definitely worth a look.

Bungled heist drama performed with tedious solemnity for a second feature. Director Saunders may have the ostensibly estimable ring of perhaps a previous Ealing luminary fallen on hard times, but in actual fact is merely a prolific veteran of the derisory programme-filler. His handling of the 'astonishing' revelation is sensationalistically lurid; appropriately enough given the viewer's strength of will to see some semblance of life injected into these sort of things by any means as the climax draws near, in order to mitigate the guilty shame of yet another wasted hour...