The Man in the Back Seat

The typical golden gem that british Film industry could provide during the late fifties and early sixties; hundreds of B movies from Butchers, Danzigers and Independant Artists Studios. It is so tense, sharp, gritty, that it is impossible to get bored about it. This film looks like an ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS episode. I highly recommend this feature from Vernon Sewell who, as Monty Tully and Lance Comfort was a great provider of such stuff. And, again, UK was a pretty good specialist in those forgotten films which we never see anywhere, even on DVD. Maybe some British channels. Enjoy this one.

This film is listed in my Aurum Encyclopedia of Horror, but although the ending could be interpreted as supernatural, I suspect that the intention was less other-worldly.

Derren Nesbitt plays two-bit thug Tony, who ropes in his pal Frank (Keith Faulkner) to help him turn over a bookie at the dog track. Tony coshes the bookie but realises afterwards that the security bag containing the day's takings is chained to the man's arm. The pair bundle their injured victim into the back seat of his car and try to figure out what to do next. Nothing goes their way, their situation going from bad to worse as the night progresses, with the bookie's condition becoming critical.

Less horror, more noir-ish thriller, The Man In The Back Seat sees director Vernon Sewell piling on the contrivances to keep the viewer squirming uncomfortably in their seat. The car Tony and Frank are driving suffers a flat tyre; the pair run out of petrol; a policeman interrupts them at a very inopportune moment; and Frank's wife Jean (Carol White) asks far too many awkward questions. When what was supposed to be a simple robbery becomes a case of murder, the guys do a runner, and this is where the film becomes a tad ambiguous: while Frank is driving, he sees the dead bookie in the back seat and loses control, the car hurtling off the edge of a bridge. Was the ghost of their victim taking revenge, or was it a case of Frank's conscience causing him to crack up? I believe the latter, but obviously Phil Hardy, editor of my Encyclopedia, thought otherwise.

6/10 -- A well-acted B-movie that achieves the desired edge-of-the-seat response regardless of how preposterous it is at times.

... and believe me I'm not trying to trivialize what the two main characters did. This short little British noir is powered by very good acting by a trio of British players with whom I am not familiar combined with great atmosphere. Two young guys who want a short cut to the good life and aren't getting anywhere by betting on the dogs at the track decide to rob a bookie. They reason he'll be an easy target since what he does is illegal anyways and he won't report the crime to the police. From the time we meet the two robbers you know exactly where they are coming from. Frank is the weak-willed guy who goes along with whatever his more dominant and nefarious friend Tony wants, because "we're mates". Frank has a conscience and probably would have never gone down this road if not for Tony. Tony is bad news, is really nobody's mate, but knows how to manipulate Frank to help him get what he wants.

The basic plot is the robbery goes bad from the start with the bookie handcuffed to his briefcase full of money, with the key to the handcuff forgotten on the bookie's desk as he leaves his office at the track. The pair of thieves are thus forced to take the unconscious bookie along with them as they have to steal the bookie's car too while they figure out how to extricate the bag from the bookie, and with them having to hit the bookie a second time when he comes to in the car. The bookie is seriously injured by this second blow, and now these two rather incompetent thugs have to balance not getting caught (Tony's top priority) with getting the bookie the medical attention he needs (Frank's main concern). The one concern they share is that of being given the death sentence should the bookie die.

Everything that can go wrong does, and adding to the drama, Frank has a wife who has had it with him catting around at night with Tony whom she has pegged as bad news from the start.

I'd highly recommend this little film that I just happened to run across on youtube. It's very short at an hour in length, but the tension just never lets up.

First rate little thriller by veteran director Sewell, who could be very good when he tried. Two crooks rob a bookie at a dog track and are stuck putting his body in the back seat. Every time they try to get rid of him, fate intervenes and they're back in the car with him. Derren Nesbitt is especially good as the more callous of the two. Good script, crisp black and white photography, taut direction. Good work all around. This is a fine addition to British film noir and should be included with others in that genre. And perhaps a re-appreciation of Sewell is in order. It's too bad this isn't out on DVD yet. Those who think Hitchcock was the only one who could use confined spaces well should check this out.

I did recently find this film on DVD in a rare video shop in Camden Lock, North London - no good waiting for it to appear on classic movie channels since TV executives are rather youth obsessed and this release is dated 1961, (the year Rod Laver won Wimbledon for the first time).Derren Nesbitt was the actor who kept your attention and played the thug in the manner I have seen him in most of his film appearances in the late 50s and early 60s.Most notably Derren had a trade mark bit part in "A Night To Remember"(1958) playing a fireman on the bow of upturned B lifeboat after "Titanic" had sunk.In the latter film I have an abiding memory of him staving off drowning passengers, with an oar, who are trying to get on and save themselves, shouting, "Get off! Get off! There's no room!It's every man for himself!!".It was films like this which endured in casting directors' minds when a thug had to be cast.So it was appropriate Derren did the coshing of the "bookie" in the subject film.Derren also appeared more menacing when he spoke, almost politely, in that soft spoken voice of his.

The plot has been adequately commented on by other reviewers.It is a pity British cinemas no longer have a "B" movie on the programme.I know I am showing my age but in the 50s and early 60s we had "Pathe News" a cartoon, a "B" film then the main feature.Of course the moral code was in force then and criminals could never be seen to get away with the proceeds from violent robbery.