Jazz Boat

Forty years ago Halliwell declared this bizarre retread of 'Brighton Rock' with songs "Very dated", but it now looks pretty cool again (particularly Diane Aubrey in her high-necked sweater and leather jeans).

We consider the late fifties & early sixties a more innocent era, yet when James Booth brandishes a razor at copper Lionel Jeffries, he responds with a broken bottle; and in 1960 this only carried an 'A' certificate!

Anthony Newley is a young electrician. He's an honest, beaten-down guy, except when he and his friends get on the Jazz Boat, an excursion liner for people who like to party. Then he and his pals like to talk a tough game. It's all for a laugh until Anne Aubrey walks onto the scene. She thinks he's a top safecracker, so she take him to see her boss, and he's caught in the middle of a nightmare.

It looks like a kitchen-sink sort of effort, with big-band numbers, Newley singing a ballad in character, shifting venues, Lionel Jeffreys in a straight turn as a violence-prone street cop, dance numbers that suggest WEST SIDE STORY, subplots that suggest film noir and AIP teenage-rebellion films .... and maybe that's the point: confusion. Newley wants more, but he doesn't know how to get it. He's a quiet nebbish, and his intended witticisms alway fall flat.

Maybe that was the intention, but the pace of the movie and the attention to the different points makes the forest invisible for the trees. It winds up being a scattergun effort, amusing, engaging perhaps, but never compelling.

I was very young when I saw this film, but remember laughing most of the time, on the edge of my seat the rest. I really cared what happened to the main character (Newley) - Spider certainly terrified me! James Booth a very under-rated actor. Lionel Jefferies was his usual exasperated self, Bernie Winters the comic relief. Why don't we see this film on tv??? A very good example of British early-sixties light comedy.

1960? Really? The plot, such as it was is a childish take on an Ealing Comedy and is basically a vehicle for Anthony Newley to hone his light comedy acting chops. It's a real time capsule. The "kids" all look about 25 and it's clear that the producers consider "jazz" something those crazy kids will groove to. Ted Heath's Band (England's answer to the American Big Bands of Glen Miller, Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey and others)seems to be mostly decorative with Ted himself seen in several shots. Costuming is another eyeopener, the non-acting extras are basically in baggy jeans or corduroys, Aran sweaters (men)and twin sets paired with flared skirts with voluminous slips beneath (ladies) - very student style then - I suspect they were recruited from the many jazz clubs around London at the time. In contrast Newley and the bad guys chasing him wear sharp, tight fitting suits and Aubrey and Blair are in cocktail dresses (why?). David Lodge is almost unrecognizable with a full beard and glasses (at first I thought he was supposed to be a rabbi...). James Booth is an early incarnation of his stereotype Cockney villain and Bernie Winters is the comic foil as the traditional "sidekick" that in US films always went to Phil Silvers, sadly Winters lacks both the talent and charm of Silvers managing instead to irritate and bore in equal measure. The film has value as a peep into the world of popular music and youth fashion, the music and the clothes were what their PARENTS had liked. In less than two years the whole music and clothing world was thrown into turmoil with the arrival of The Beatles and all the beat groups that followed them. Swinging London was about to erupt and all the conventions that this film displays were swept away.

Dated but extremely enjoyable light pop vehicle for Anthony Newley, who since "Idle On Parade" had become a big name not only in acting but in the pop charts too. Newley stars with his good friend Bernie Winters, pretending to be a big time crook to impress him. Bernie in turn tells "The Gang" who want "in" with Newley, who has nick named himself as "the Cat". Also stars Ted Heath and his music and the lovely Anne Aubrey, who's short cinematic career showed more promise than she was allowed to provide! Dance sequences choreographed by Lionel Blair (with sister Joyce in the cast too!) Sheer delight! Enjoy and wallow in nostalgia!