Offbeat

Director Cliff Owen's brisk 60s crime caper demonstratively remains an exciting, palm-sweatingly dynamic underworld thriller exposing the inherent risks of Scotland Yard's cavalier methodology to thwart the increasingly audacious criminal elements lurking within the UK's labyrinthine metropolis. Steve Ross (William Sylvester) is an ice-pick cool undercover agent, and after successfully infiltrating an established firm, Steve very soon finds himself dangerously embroiled in an especially audacious jewel heist which ultimately prompts him to realign his allegiances to his own financial, if not moral advantage! The robbery itself is beautifully conceived, energetically orchestrated by gifted film-maker Owen, in fact the film's stylistic influence on contemporary Brit-crime thrillers is quite obvious. 'Offbeat' has an unusually robust text, winningly vivid performances from a talented cast, including another luminous turn from the always delightful Mia Zetterling, and maestro Ken Jones's exemplary jazz score provides an exhilarating backbeat to the palpably tense, increasingly white-hot intensity of the gang's subterranean larceny! 'Offbeat' is a hard-hitting, finely-honed Brit-crime classic that forcefully maintains its sinewy grip right until its legitimately thrilling climax. Fans of cult British cinema might care to know that journeyman director Cliff Owen also directed the amiable farce 'No Sex Please We're British!' (1973)

Director Cliff Owen gave us PRIZE OF ARMS, one year later, a terrific heist film starring Stanley Baker several years before ROBBERY. This movie - PRIZE OF ARMS - was absolutely stunning and any other crime film made by this director could not be better. That doesn't mean that DEVIL INSIDE - OFFBEAT- is lower in efficiency, quality. It is just different, and more in the line of what the crime intrigues usually are. It remains a tremendous British crime thriller that deserves to be seen. But, in France, a very few movie goers know this movie. Many audiences will prefer PRIZE OF ARMS. I belong to them, but please, watch this one. Also a major RIFIFI heist influence. Light hearted but also a bittersweet.

'Downbeat' would have been a more appropriate tile for this poor man's 'Asphalt Jungle' told in flashback so we already know the ultimate fate of the hero.

Slickly made with a capable cast and lots of cynical one-liners like "Better not work too hard or someone will get suspicious!", it's one drawback is an annoying score by Ken Jones.

An undercover agent (William Sylvester) infiltrates a gang planning a daring bank heist; inevitably all does not go entirely to plan when he gets in deep and develops a conscience.

An above-average short from the British Lion studios so much of the location work is around Shepperton. What sets this film apart from most of its contemporaries is its sympathetic depiction of the bank robbers; instead of being shown as two-dimensional bad apples, or smug cockney geezers (see most Brit crime offerings circa early 2000s), here they are a proper small business profit and loss set-up, headed by the excellent Anthony Dawson.

Sylvester's character (Layton/Ross) starts off almost unbearably slick and cool, but the chemistry between him and Mai Zetterling is tangible, and he mellows. John Meillon (much later of Crocodile Dundee fame), is also very likeable as a fellow gang member, piling on the ethical dilemma for our antihero as the film builds to a very effective climax. The only problem for the viewer was that it was difficult to equate the murder - a brutal running down in a getaway car- of a police officer at the beginning of the film, and this engaging, amiable and hard-working outfit. Past that minor quibble, this is one of the good ones.

"To play this game", says one veteran criminal to a new recruit, "you need a cool head and an eye for angles." The same advice could apply to the art of filmmaking as well, and here's a good case in point: what could have been a routine British thriller, but with more style and intelligence than otherwise might be expected from such a familiar scenario. The new recruit is actually a spy hired by Scotland Yard to infiltrate an underground crime network, where he discovers during an elaborate jewelry heist more honor among the ring of thieves than among his fellow law enforcers. Aside from the ambiguous ending and a sometimes too relentless big city jazz score, this is first-class escapist entertainment with more than one trick up its sleeve.

...Note: the film was titled 'Offbeat' at the rare theatrical screening I attended, on the Berkeley campus way back in 1986...