The Marked One

Criminals believe that ex con Don Mason is in possession of forgery plates, to coerce him into handing them over, they threaten to kidnap his daughter Mary.

I wouldn't say this is the most dynamic looking film I've come across, very much a B movie, it's functional, it's well filmed and well produced, but it's more robust than dynamic.

However when it comes to the film's actual story and the acting, it scores quite highly. It's engaging, a good old fashioned story of blackmail, with the central character Don proving to be an interesting leading man.

A short running time helps the film's pace, it pops along quite nicely.

William Lucas is very strong as Don, very well supported by Zena Walker, she clearly had a busy agent, she was a prolific actress, talented too.

Competently well made, well acted, with a good storyline, it's a good watch.

7/10.

William Lucas is a quiet, clearly unhappy man, living in a residential hotel and working on the docks. It soon becomes clear that he is just out of prison for being involved in a counterfeiting ring. He fell, but no one else did, and he kept shtum, and nothing more has been heard from the ring. He's got a wife (Zena Walker) who lives with their child. The police come by occasionally to threaten Lucas, and now some one is threatening his daughter unless he turns over the plates to the counterfeit money. He doesn't know where they are.

Leigh is good in the lead role, but more than this, it's the very model of a crime B: short, and gets the job done at a good pace under the direction of Francis Searle. Searle was one of those mainstays of the Quota Quickies in the 1950s. He entered the industry doing shorts in the 1930s, graduated to features with an A picture, A GIRL IN A MILLION, then displayed his talent for coming in on budget and never got a big one again. With the right script and cast, he could turn out a nifty little movie, but he didn't get many of those. This was his last feature. He directed three more shorts through 1968, wrote and produced for four more years, and died in 2002 at the age of 93.

THE MARKED ONE represents a very typical early 60's Brit B pic - entertaining enough for its short duration but hardly memorable.

William Lucas plays Don Mason, a tough cookie but underneath it all basically a sound chap; recently released from the clink, he's pursued by some unsavoury ex-associates while trying to hold down a driving job and living in modest digs. When his daughter is threatened, his estranged wife (Zena Marshall) reappears- and that spells the end for whatever cosy arrangement he had with housemate Maisie (Laurie Lee).

Patrick Jordan plays the enigmatic "Insp Mayne" dropping in and out of the narrative, which potters along to an underwhelming conclusion.

Watch out for shots of The Pilot pub in Chiswick - still standing after all these years; fortunately the management will have changed out of all recognition from this film, where Arthur Lovegrove's turn as a creepy, lascivious owner is unsatisfyingly not given its full comeuppance. David Gregory appears briefly- another "forgotten" name from the early 60s B studios.

This is a British Crime thriller which manages to long outstay its welcome despite the fact that it only lasts just over one hour.Lucas plays a lorry driver who is recently out of prison.It appears that he either has or knows where he can find plates for making forged banknotes.For this reason he is a very popular or unpopular man,The scriptwriter seems to have decided to throw in as many elements as he can think of for this type of thriller with the result that it is an unexciting mess.Furthermore it is not that difficult to work out the identity of the mysterious threatening voice on the telephone.Despite the fact that this film was made at MGM Borehamwood studios the production looks threadbare and poverty stricken.The producer is Tom Blakely so presumably this film had some connection with Mancunian Studios.

William Lucas - never the most versatile of actors - is "Mason", a man who works on the docks and lives in a B&B. It turns out that he has a bit of a criminal past, and when his erstwhile colleagues get the idea that he knows the whereabouts of some valuable bank note plates, they kidnap his daughter who lives with his estranged wife "Kay" (Zena Walker). The thing is, the man has no idea where they are - and with the police "Mayne" (Patrick Jordan) on one side, his wife and the gangsters all also on his back his options are limiting and his desperation growing. Largely devoid of any jeopardy - I always found that thrillers from this period that involved children always lacked any real sense of menace - it's a bit of a ramshackle affair with one too many half-baked scenarios thrown in to try and sustain what is essentially a bit of a non-story. Clearly made on a shoestring budget by the experienced if not exactly innovative Francis Searle, it meanders to a conclusion that is hardly a surprise to anyone. It's adequate afternoon cinema fayre this, but production line stuff.