Jungle Street

Four years before becoming a man from UNCLE, David McCallum is a punk in London. His father spends most of his paycheck on beer, and so McCallum has taken to mugging old ladies. Now, however, he's killed one, and the police are looking for him. Add in stripper Jill Ireland, and her boyfriend just come back in a stay in prison for a job he had pulled with McCallum, and suddenly Dave is looking to get out of town.... but he's purely a city creature.

There's clearly a liberal edge to this movie, as McCallum's vicious nature can be attributed to a bad environment, rote uncaring parents and bad companions. yet in order to make that point, there needs to be some sign of possible reform, and director Charles Saunders is more interested in showing us the censor-compliant strippers at the local grindhouse; McCallum is a lost cause, vicious and blaming his bad choices on everyone except himself. With no reason to sympathize with this marauding creature, why should anyone care what happens to him?

Not a patch on the gritty film noir of the time, Taste of Honey, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, et al. Gave up after 15 minutes. Seedy and just plain poor.

After having met and married after working together in HELL DRIVERS where they were basically glorified cameos, three years later David McCallum and Jill Ireland - as an aimless still at home loser hanging around a strip joint to catch that joint's top stripper -- actually starred in another B&W British flick that's far superior: a heist thriller that takes an entire film to reach that heist with creative twisty avenues, and our two stars aren't alone...

The third lead in the triangle is freshly-sprung convict Kenneth Cope, a handsome and experienced lad with a romantic background with Ireland (one scene as he charmingly converses with McCallum's kitchen sink mother is a standout); he also wants payback from former partner McCallum, who didn't get caught from what landed him in prison...

Meanwhile, Ireland's Sue is the obsessed apple of McCallum's wormy eye, and he has such comfortable means around the place -- constantly fixing the car of the club's pushy and obese owner, also smitten with the otherwise old fashion/idealistic Ireland -- and it's through McCallum's primary perspective the audience experiences this seedy locale, from the theater stage to random dressing rooms and offices, like really being there...

Where the JUNGLE STREET GIRLS acts are not just in the background but right up front, interweaving throughout the dialogue, almost like a documentary or expose, including CIRCUS OF HORROR blonde bombshell Vanda Hudson while the prettiest, Marian Collins, is the announcer/MC...

So when the 11th hour safe-cracking occurs it's well after McCallum had been slowly cornered by surrounding cops, investigating the film's opening robbery of an old man that unintentionally turned to murder, and perhaps the best, most memorable character is indeed a character, straight from a classic Cagney/Bogart flick...

Enter Brian Weske's Joe Lucas as smarmy yet likeable hypochondriac Joe Lucas, also the most crookedly professional, having figured out who did the initial killing that everyone, including him, is being questioned for...

So as he darts in and out from random scene to scene, there's a palpable sense of Noirish criminal ambiguity that fits both the location and multilayered plotline -- one that needs more than one viewing to catch and thoroughly appreciate everything.

JUNGLE STREET is a low rent British crime film from prolific director Charles Saunders. It has a fair share of problems but nonetheless works thanks to some strong acting from the leads and the narrative itself, which is a fun mish-mash of timely themes and the occasional bit of suspense.

The film incorporates some of the burgeoning 'kitchen sink' drama genre into its running time in its depiction of the home life of youthful tearaway David McCallum, a man who despises his family and his whole class and wants to make something better for himself. This means turning to crime to make ends meet, and you can guess how that ends up. Like a lot of low budget British crime films, much of the action centres around a nightclub, or rather a strip club in this instance.

This is where much of the padding comes into it. The first half of the film in particular is full of tame striptease sequences which show no nudity but are nonetheless quite racy at times. They go on forever and they parade many attractive actresses around which is no bad thing really, particularly when the chief stripper is the young and lovely Jill Ireland, a really arresting presence here.

The plot is further complicated by police investigation and the release from jail of a seasoned criminal, played with relish by Kenneth Cope. Cope and McCallum have some good scenes together which makes the story work. There's an inevitable heist sequence which is well directed and an effective climax. No classic, but more than watchable for what it is.

I first thought it was produced by the Danzigers or Butchers companies, the two major British B companies concerning B thrillers or crimes, and also the best. Because during the early sixties, Uk film industry gave us hundreds of such little crime dramas. This one is certainly not spectacular but worth seeing, as many other ones too; for instance John Lemont's SHAKEDOWN or FRIGHTENED CITY. UK crime film industry was not only LEAGUE OF THE GENTLEMEN or PAYROLL. It is even more social than crime, because showing young punks who still live with their folks. With some kitchen sink elements. No tough gangsters here. I have tenderness for this movie and it is also the opportunity to see David McCallum and his actual life wife Jill Ireland, several years before she meets Charles Bronson...But that's another story. David Mc Callum is terrific in this petty pink role, not the good and brave lead character. The contrary of the typical hero. Violent and coward. I love this because it changes.