The Marked One

William Lucas was an obscure British actor whose small amount of fame was as the father in an adaptation of BLACK BEAUTY, no longer the Bogart-looking tough guy from a string of early-1960's b-crimes as leading bad guys (THE BREAK), sketchy middlemen (PAYROLL) or criminals in-between (CALCULATED RISK, BREAKOUT)...

And THE MARKED ONE leans to that middle-ground... an ex convict who, with a divorced wife, young daughter and nowhere factory gig, is threatened by enigmatic prior-partners-in-crime to retrieve forgery plates that he might or might not have, providing more mystery to the character than his dire circumstance...

His daughter's threatened for an anticipated kidnapping; and when it finally happens Lucas's Don Mason's rushed through the usual neo noir cadence of asking questions: from woodwork goons including David Gregory as a goading womanizer and photographer Brian Nissan, whose model girlfriend is THE GIRLS HUNTERS ingenue Kim Tracy...

But it's our subtle hero's wife played by always-dependable British actress Zena Walker who not only steals the show but has the most to gain or lose including her daughter, her job, and the man she's born to retrieve: if only their relationship were tested more intensely, overall making THE MARKED ONES more an idea than movie.

William Lucas is a quiet, clearly unhappy man, living in a residential hotel and working on the docks. It soon becomes clear that he is just out of prison for being involved in a counterfeiting ring. He fell, but no one else did, and he kept shtum, and nothing more has been heard from the ring. He's got a wife (Zena Walker) who lives with their child. The police come by occasionally to threaten Lucas, and now some one is threatening his daughter unless he turns over the plates to the counterfeit money. He doesn't know where they are.

Leigh is good in the lead role, but more than this, it's the very model of a crime B: short, and gets the job done at a good pace under the direction of Francis Searle. Searle was one of those mainstays of the Quota Quickies in the 1950s. He entered the industry doing shorts in the 1930s, graduated to features with an A picture, A GIRL IN A MILLION, then displayed his talent for coming in on budget and never got a big one again. With the right script and cast, he could turn out a nifty little movie, but he didn't get many of those. This was his last feature. He directed three more shorts through 1968, wrote and produced for four more years, and died in 2002 at the age of 93.

This is a British Crime thriller which manages to long outstay its welcome despite the fact that it only lasts just over one hour.Lucas plays a lorry driver who is recently out of prison.It appears that he either has or knows where he can find plates for making forged banknotes.For this reason he is a very popular or unpopular man,The scriptwriter seems to have decided to throw in as many elements as he can think of for this type of thriller with the result that it is an unexciting mess.Furthermore it is not that difficult to work out the identity of the mysterious threatening voice on the telephone.Despite the fact that this film was made at MGM Borehamwood studios the production looks threadbare and poverty stricken.The producer is Tom Blakely so presumably this film had some connection with Mancunian Studios.

Criminals believe that ex con Don Mason is in possession of forgery plates, to coerce him into handing them over, they threaten to kidnap his daughter Mary.

I wouldn't say this is the most dynamic looking film I've come across, very much a B movie, it's functional, it's well filmed and well produced, but it's more robust than dynamic.

However when it comes to the film's actual story and the acting, it scores quite highly. It's engaging, a good old fashioned story of blackmail, with the central character Don proving to be an interesting leading man.

A short running time helps the film's pace, it pops along quite nicely.

William Lucas is very strong as Don, very well supported by Zena Walker, she clearly had a busy agent, she was a prolific actress, talented too.

Competently well made, well acted, with a good storyline, it's a good watch.

7/10.

William Lucas - never the most versatile of actors - is "Mason", a man who works on the docks and lives in a B&B. It turns out that he has a bit of a criminal past, and when his erstwhile colleagues get the idea that he knows the whereabouts of some valuable bank note plates, they kidnap his daughter who lives with his estranged wife "Kay" (Zena Walker). The thing is, the man has no idea where they are - and with the police "Mayne" (Patrick Jordan) on one side, his wife and the gangsters all also on his back his options are limiting and his desperation growing. Largely devoid of any jeopardy - I always found that thrillers from this period that involved children always lacked any real sense of menace - it's a bit of a ramshackle affair with one too many half-baked scenarios thrown in to try and sustain what is essentially a bit of a non-story. Clearly made on a shoestring budget by the experienced if not exactly innovative Francis Searle, it meanders to a conclusion that is hardly a surprise to anyone. It's adequate afternoon cinema fayre this, but production line stuff.