Le crime ne paie pas

The interesting thing about this film is the psychology. Dr. Michael Conway is a well situated doctor who attends to his duties and takes care of his mother, but he has a brother who is of the opposite sort. After a robbery that goes wrong he is sorely beaten up and almost killed in a car accident but gets away and to his brother to bandage him up. Later he asks his brother to tell the police that they played chess together all evening, and the brother, being a conscientious doctor sticking to the obligation of silence and all that, grants his brother that alibi, without suspecting that in the failed robbery his brother accidentally killed the robbed jeweller, who was no one less than Ian Fleming. But the jeweller has a daughter, (Elizabeth Sellars), who happened to be there at the time, and accidentally she runs into the murderer of her father and will never forget his face. The major part of the messy intrigue is about her very roundabout efforts to build up evidence against him - she even deigns to let him woo her just to get closer to him to get him nailed. There are many crooks involved in this, and there are many hard blows and shootings, chases by night and rival gangs trying to gun down each other, piling up the mess, while at least Doctor Michael manages to keep out of trouble, realising far too late that he unintentionally contributed to the mess by protecting his brother. Alas, the main victim becomes their mother. It's thick thriller, well written and well played, and the direction (by John Gilling who also wrote it) is qualified enough. Elizabeth Sellars, fresh from "The Broken Horseshoe", was good at suave ambiguous roles with covert intentions, and here even her father's murderer is deceived by her, while it is impossible to grant Kieron Moore any sympathy.

The gorgeous Elizabeth Sellars stars in this gripping drama, though IMO wrongly cast she plays the part well in her usual faultless style.

Her father is killed in a heist gone wrong and the criminal is seen by Jean (Elizabeth) but cleverly sets up an alibi which is unable to be faulted by the police. Jean then sets about trying to trap the killer (Edward Underdown) by whoring herself to him, much to the chagrin of Underdown's brother who has innocently supplied the alibi and thinks that Jean is the cat's pajamas.

Cleverly working her way into the confidence of the killer and his cohorts, Jean keeps the police updated on the coming plans of the gang while the brother starts to realise he's been dudded into giving false information.

A wonderful 'B' movie that moves along at a great pace with good acting and direction. The only downside seems to be the casting of some of the players - Edward Underdown and Keiron Moore as brothers? - tends to make one think of 'Twins' with Danny de Vito.

Don't miss it if you get the opportunity. --- 8/ 10.

A low budget effort with silly complicated plot and storyline about postwar London crooks. Interesting shots of long vanished warehouses and vehicles.

Love interest is between curiously faced Elizabeth Sellars and prematurely aged Edward Underdown who looked old enough to be both her father and his own mother!

Silly shoot out in warehouse filmed in daylight but crook runs to car in dark!

Martic Benson looks very nice with a moustache and he dies very convincingly after the crook shoots him.

Worth watching for the historical street scenes and fashions.

Recoil is one of those British B's I love so much. This one stars Kieron Moore and Elizabeth Sellars.

A woman (Sellars) poses as a crook in order to get evidence against the jewel thief who killed her father.

Pretty good - something about Sellars reminded me of Jackie O, around the eyes.

Good acting, interesting story.

Jean Talbot watches in horror as her father, a jeweller is robbed and attacked by a gang of thugs, she learns the identity of the ring leader, and poses as a criminal in order to bring him down.

It's a very stylish noir b movie, if you're a fan of this genre, there is plenty here to enjoy, the first thing that struck me was the rather excellent cinematography. Some great road sequences, and the theatre scenes looked impressive, this is a super good looking film.

The story, you could perhaps argue that there isn't anything new here, however, it's refreshing to see what is effectively a female lead in a thriller, Jean is very much the hero of the piece, beautifully played by Elizabeth Sellars.

It's well paced, it's gritty, and features a few rather surprising moments, the main question I had, was Jean going to fall in love with Michael?

John Horsley was rather good as The Detective, Kieron Moore and Edward Underdown were excellent as the very different brothers, and I just loved Ethel O'Shea's subtle but strong performance as the troubled mother.

8/10.