Soho Incident

When this film was made Soho had a rather seedy reputation.Gangs running protection rackets,illegal gambling and drink clubs,prostitution and strip clubs.Soho had it all.Most though not all of this has gone.Nowdays it is full of trendy restaurants and clubs.So the most interesting aspect of this otherwise uninspired and derivative thriller are the location shots.The credit titles,open over the Casino Cinema,now Prince Edward Theatre,showing "This Is Cinerama".I was taken to see this and saw it again a couple of years ago at The National Media Museum in Bradford.Very spectacular.We then follow Patterson around the streets at night.Next we see him coming out of a building in Soho Square which i believe is where the BBFC is now situated.Finally we get shots of Patterson walking through the famous Berwick Street market.The strange thing about the plot is Patterson is supposed to be a boxer,but he suddenly becomes a telephone engineer without explanation.The plot is predictable enlivened only by the oily boss splendidly portrayed by the marvelous Martin Benson,who keeps on complaining about the food he is served.

One is to see how bad Faye Domerogue is acting and two to see 26 year old Lee Patterson in all his handsome glory.

The rest is a typical B gangster film with a frigid femme fatale.

I remember Lee Patterson from One Life to Live, but I never thought of him as a hunk. Boy was I wrong.

I also didn't realize he had a decent B movie career. In this British film, Spin a Dark Web, he is hired by a gangster and falls for his sister (Faith Domergue).

When a friend's son is killed by a member of said gangster's group, everyone denies the guy worked for Pattersin's current employer. He soon realizes he's working for a bottom feeder.

As the femme fatale, Faith Domergue manages to making a biting role into not much. The character is evil, actually more evil than her brother, but for me she just didn't give the role much gumption. I would have loved seeing Anne Baxter in this role.

Yesterday I complained about people walking around Italy speaking English with Italian accents because since they are really speaking Italian, no accent is needed.

Today I will complain because Domergue is from Sicily, and as a Sicilian speaking English, she should have an accent - like her brother has.

It's just okay.

A sort of British version of 711 OCEAN DRIVE has a young naïve tech expert hired to wire up a horse race betting scheme so the villains can get the inside tip straight from the bookie's mouth...

Yet it begins like a boxing noir since the lanky and passive Canadian import Lee Patterson is a wannabe prizefighter set with a girl-next-door girlfriend, daughter of a trainer and his fighter son... the latter killed by a no-good hood played by Bernard Fox before his signature mustache made him an endearing magical character-actor...

His gruff character here breaking SPIN A DARK WEB into two parts: one has our hero sent by plan-plotting criminals Martin Benson and Robert Arden to pay or catch or maybe even kill hideaway Fox while working out the aforementioned con...

And there needed more of the first as the sting is too complicated while the best scenes, traipsing in and out of actual London streets/locales, clash with phony-looking rear-projection driving scenes... thankfully there's less of the latter...

And like all Film Noirs it's a sexy femme fatale who makes our blank-slate boy turn savage-sappy while he neglects the good gal who had him first... but she isn't very attractive, or interesting... and token wildcard Faith Domergue doesn't have enough time to SPIN that DARK titular WEB with all those literal wires getting crossed and uncrossed, again and again.

This was an interesting little British crime film that starred both an American actress and a Canadian actor, which I guess was common at the time.

The story is about Canadian Jim Bankley who while training at a British boxing gym owned by Tom Walker he befriends Tom's two children, Bill and Betty. Bill is a promising boxer at the ring and unbeknownst to Jim is asked by a local mobster to take a dive in the ring which he doesn't do.

Meanwhile Jim who hasn't been successful is looking for work and his fellow Canadian, Buddy. He finds Buddy who gets him a job with his employer the local mobster Rico Francesi...only it's not really Buddy or Rico that gets Jim hired, it's Rico's sister Bella. Bella takes a shine to Jim and wants him moved up the paces.

Bottom-line is Jim is a good guy (I.e. He may be ok with tapping phone lines to fix betting on horses at the track, but he is not ok with murder), so when Bill ends up dead at the hands of one of Rico's goons and Jim finds out about it he wants out. Only then does he discover how blood thirsty Bella really is.

Good action, interesting story...but the best part of this film is really the 1950's sidewalk/street scenes in England...fresh market, neon signs, liquor store, etc. GGreat, great footage and for me the best part of this film. A noir buff might enjoy this film..and those with curiosity like me.