A Canadian living in London is trying to succeed as a prizefighter, without much luck. He meets the sister of a local mob leader, and she soon draws him into the gang's activities. After he ... Read allA Canadian living in London is trying to succeed as a prizefighter, without much luck. He meets the sister of a local mob leader, and she soon draws him into the gang's activities. After he finds himself being drawn into a murder plot, he finally realizes that his lover is only u... Read allA Canadian living in London is trying to succeed as a prizefighter, without much luck. He meets the sister of a local mob leader, and she soon draws him into the gang's activities. After he finds himself being drawn into a murder plot, he finally realizes that his lover is only using him, and determines to escape the gang - but things don't turn out the way he planned... Read all
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Featured reviews
Some weaknesses notwithstanding, the script by Ian Black is solid. I had found it difficult to believe that Rona Anderson's highly fit boxeur brother died after getting hit over the head with a small and flexible police baton, just as I could not see the need for Rico Francesi to bump off McLeod, who had been absent from the screen for some 60', when they had more pressing matters to attend to. On the positive end, we get to listen to some sharp dialogue, conveyed mainly by deceitfully evil femme fatale Domergue in contrast with upstanding Lee Patterson.
I feel that stunningly beautiful Rona Anderson was given a far smaller part than she deserved, the same going for Peter Burton in the role of Inspector Collis.
As was the habit in British B pics of the 1950s, foreign nationals get the male and female leads (Domergue a US citizen, Patterson Canadian). Cinematography is good enough for the film's purposes, but I have seen better in other Brit B pics.
Very catchy tune entitled "Love me, love me now" sung by Julie Dawn.
All told, a fun 76 minutes with some gripping action and repartee.
The rest is a typical B gangster film with a frigid femme fatale.
Yet it begins like a boxing noir since the lanky and passive Canadian import Lee Patterson is a wannabe prizefighter set with a girl-next-door girlfriend, daughter of a trainer and his fighter son... the latter killed by a no-good hood played by Bernard Fox before his signature mustache made him an endearing magical character-actor...
His gruff character here breaking SPIN A DARK WEB into two parts: one has our hero sent by plan-plotting criminals Martin Benson and Robert Arden to pay or catch or maybe even kill hideaway Fox while working out the aforementioned con...
And there needed more of the first as the sting is too complicated while the best scenes, traipsing in and out of actual London streets/locales, clash with phony-looking rear-projection driving scenes... thankfully there's less of the latter...
And like all Film Noirs it's a sexy femme fatale who makes our blank-slate boy turn savage-sappy while he neglects the good gal who had him first... but she isn't very attractive, or interesting... and token wildcard Faith Domergue doesn't have enough time to SPIN that DARK titular WEB with all those literal wires getting crossed and uncrossed, again and again.
Did you know
- TriviaThe first feature film of Bernard Fox.
- GoofsAfter Bankley talks to Collis about letting him get through on phone Bankley walks by a police car. The coppers inside are talking on radio and crew's head and face are visible in car window that is partially up.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Ken Adam: Designing Bond (2000)
- How long is Spin a Dark Web?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime
- 1h 16m(76 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1