Undercover Girl

Yes a typical Butchers B film from the 1950s.It moves at quite a pace particularly in the last reel.Though the title left me a bit bewildered since there is really no undercover girl in the film.The film centres around Bruce Set on a club owner who has a lifeline in blackmail and murder.Unusual to see Set on as a crook.He was to play Fabian of the yard,and lived to regret it.It typefaces him and all but ruined his career.Although essentially a British B film it was clearly made with the American market in mind.There can be no other explanation for the inordinate amount of gun play around at the end.The film is no great shakes but passes a reasonable hour.

Some confusion exists over UNDERCOVER GIRL, as it was released in the US under the equally meaningless title ASSIGNMENT REDHEAD. This happened to be the name of another British crime film, made the previous year and known in the US as MILLION DOLLAR MANHUNT, thus leading to credits for the two productions getting muddled on occasions.

Here, regular 'B' lead Paul Carpenter plays a photographer taking over the investigation into a shady nightclub owner, whom, he believes, is responsible for his reporter brother-in-law's murder. He works for the kind of magazine that mixes glamour photos with articles "lifting the lid off Soho" and exposing gambling rackets - "what goes on behind the net curtains". So much for the supposedly sedate Britain of 1957. Meanwhile Carpenter's girlfriend Kay Callard is concerned about sister Jackie Collins who's also involved with the vicious club owner/gangster, played by Bruce Seton, best known at the time for his portrayal of that exemplar of 1950s law and order, Fabian of the Yard.

Carpenter uncovers a blackmail racket and drug pushing, centred on a dodgy nursing home, but, flatly presented and directed, it's not as interesting as it sounds. Obviously made on a low budget, time is padded out with Carpenter taking photos of Maya Koumani as 'Miss Brazil' while the background score of Bill Trytel further reinforces the resemblance to the kind of 1930s quota quickie of which he was a veteran. As an actress, Jackie Collins doesn't do badly, though inevitably, is more memorable for her sensational figure.

Enthusiastic photographer "Carter" (Paul Carpenter) is determined to investigate a dodgy nightclub owner whom he thinks is behind the killing of his brother-in-law. Meantime, his gal "Joan" (Kay Callard) is concerned that her naive and innocent sister "Peggy" (Jackie Collins - yep, that one!) is getting herself too closely entangled with this self same hood - "Ted" (Bruce Seton). Before long, "Carter" is knee-deep in a blackmailing and drug-running racket but can he get to the bottom of things before he, too, goes the way of the dodo? The story is actually a little more sophisticated than the routine - faking accidents to extort cash and to coerce the victims into helping with their lucrative peddling, but the dialogue is way too plentiful and there is a lot of padding - especially the scenes with the "Miss Brazil" (Maya Koumani) that rips the pace out of the film quite successfully. Seton really doesn't engender the slightest sense of malice - though maybe that's because he has been in so many of these B-features that his face is synonymous with just about every role you'd care to mention, and that does impact on the potency of his characterisations. It ends as you'd expect and is entirely forgettable stuff, sorry.

When his brother-in-law is killed, two-fisted magazine photographer Paul Carpenter goes looking for the guy who did it. His quest leads him to a hit-and-run racket, combined with blackmail, as well as a bevy of beautiful birds, including Kay Callard, Monica Grey, Jackie Collins and Maya Koumani (whose character name is "Miss Brazil").

For a cheap Butchers' second feature, it's an unpretentious, amusing little film, directed by Francis Searle. Searle was one of those British directors who directed cheap movies, mostly thrillers, and brought them in on budget, about a good as his mediocre scripts and short budgets would let him. Here's one where no one seems to have take it very seriously, and it works better for it. The result is a pleasant time-waster.

Despite the title, the sleuthing is nearly all in the hands of 'B' movie stalwart Paul Carpenter in this talky (and in places sloppily post-synced) little period piece set in cheap-looking 'luxury' apartments which matter of factly breezes through a tawdry plot involving murder and narcotics. (It was only when Maya Koumani turned up as 'Miss Brazil', sporting a tight shiny dress and a phony foreign accent that I realised that I'd actually seen this tinny little quickie on Central Television about twenty five years ago; which shows how memorable it all was.)

Sometimes interestingly lit by Jimmy Harvey, the mood music provided by Twickenham Films veteran Bill Trytel occasionally livens things up, and the women naturally all look awesome in the fifties style; although the amount of drinking & smoking shows that it's not just the snazzy threads that 'Mad Men' got right!