The Girl on the Pier

Hard to take this film too seriously, but the Pier is fun, especially the policeman chasing the clown.

Chief Inspector Charles Victor has to give a talk or three at a police convention in Brighton, so he takes the wife and three children on a holiday. However, the youngsters find a tale of lust, infidelity, blackmail and murder while he's trying to fish and the wife is trying to get some sun.

It starts off with one of those semi-documentaries of all the fun you can have at Brighton Pier, and descends into all of the stuff that makes B movies exciting, but does so in a rather disappointing manner, with annoying 13-year-old Anthony Valentine as the uncontrollable scamp, and ends with a rather ludicrous chase of the police being unable to catch a clown scampering around the bracings of the pier. Director Lance Comfort could direct a cheap movie with a decent script, but he can't manage much with this.

'A Major Production', proudly declare the credits of this diverting little cross between 'Holiday Camp' and 'Brighton Rock' with a bit of 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' also thrown in.

The usually demure Veronica Hurst is unusually cast as a high maintenance femme fatale ("You're costing me a fortune in lipstick") who finds comfort in the strong arms of virile Ron Randall ("Sweetie, I'd go anywhere with you") playing an embittered ex-con who moonlights as an end of the pier crooner (as you do).

William McLeod's excellent Brighton photography is meanwhile constantly at odds with Ray Terry's annoying score, although as it progresses it will strike a chord with anyone who already finds clowns creepy.

Made at the venerable Brighton Studios,a survivor of the silent era. Shot against the background of fifties Brighton. Charles Victor is the Detective on what turns out to be a busman's holiday. Campbell Singer is unusually cast as a villain. I bet it wasn't him clambering over the girders of the pier. The plot is serviceable and passes an entertaining hour.