The Case of Charles Peace

Norman Lee made only one more film before giving up directing films to become a novelist. Too bad, as he was on a roll after the war, as this little gem - which deserves to be much better known - attests.

Britain as usual felt itself to be experiencing a crime wave after the war, but violent crime was nothing new, as this Victorian melodrama amply demonstrates, in which a copper gets shot seventy years before 'The Blue Lamp'.

Poor old Sheffield always gets a raw deal from movies, and in recent years has unfairly been made to look an urban hell in 'Looks and Smiles' (1981) and 'The Full Monty' (1997); and although far less built-up during the 1870's is still depicted in this film as a den of vice and violent crime.

An interesting supporting cast including Chili Bouchier, Valentine Dyall and Hamilton Deane as the judge who sentences Peace to death is enhanced by the bold decision to resist the temptation to cast Tod Slaughter in the title role and instead give the lead to Michael Martin-Harvey - usually a bit player, but who absolutely makes the role his own: investing the part with a small stature, a deceptively mousy appearance, but an enormous personality.

This little gem of a movie deserves wider recognition. I'd never heard of it until I stumbled upon it one afternoon on the UK MoviesForMen channel.

You certainly get a great sense of the Victorian Era in Britain in which it is set and Peace, as played by Michael Martin Harvey makes a chillingly credible sociopath. He put me in mind somehow of Richard Attenborough's seedy Christie in 10 Rillington Place.

The only criticism I could make is that Harvey was maybe a little old for the lead role as he looks the wrong side of 60! The courtroom scenes are also very realistic.

I wonder how it came to be forgotten.

While watching THE CASE OF CHARLES PEACE, I couldn't help but wondering how this would have turned out as a Tod Slaughter movie. Certainly given Slaughter's propensity for barnstorming performances, it would have been entertaining stuff - more entertaining than it turned out to be with this genteel, laid-back story of crime and murder.

Charles Peace was a famous Mancunian who lived a double life as a kindly family man by day and ruthless burglar/murderer by night. He's played here by the long forgotten Michael Martin-Henry, who's not bad, but gives a relatively restrained performance given the subject matter.

Unfortunately, the film itself is a bit of a dud, as it never manages to pick up speed despite the intriguing storyline. I didn't like the courtroom wraparound part of the film, as it saps the narrative of both vigour and pace. The depiction of the various crimes isn't bad but there's a definite lack of the kind of suspense you'd expect, leaving this as an interesting curio and nothing more.

Michael Martin Harvey is Charles Peace in this odd little movie about his adult days as a thief and a murderer. It all seems rather chaotic, but I believe that was the intention, as Harvey goes around killing people and blacking his face, and claiming to have black outs to the endless confusion of the police. Apparently in England in those days, unless you said "It's a fair cop" when a bobby put his hand on your shoulder, there wasn't much anyone could do.

Peace had been a subject for the movies since at least 1905, and this movie doesn't attempt to whitewash him in any way; indeed, Harvey's performance seems perfectly insincere all the way through, a smart, tough little man who says the things people expect him to say, hoping to keep them confused all the way through, even as he claims to have been saved, confesses to a murder that another man is about to be hanged for, and asks the press not to make targets of his children.

A thoroughly enjoyable movie, and a true story. Michael Martin Harvey does a wonderful job bringing Peace to life. He portrays him as charismatic and enigmatic, a larger than life figure, who used his confidence tricks to cheat those around him. He shows some real versatility in the part.

Shocking yo think he got away with so many crimes, although from the movie we get that he was a very convincing, devious man. Don't be convinced by the early courtroom scenes, which are a little sluggish, it develops very nicely as it progresses.

It's a well made film, nicely edited, well acted, and definitely not boring. I found the fight scenes pretty convincing, better than many today.

Very watchable, 8/10