Last night we watched a tough little British crime flick called "Jungle Street Girls"(1960), which centers around a seedy strip club called The Adam & Eve (ouch!). David McCallum stars as "Terry Collins", a punk who pumps gas by day and hangs around the club by night, dogging "Sue" (Jill Ireland) one of the joint's top dancers. Terry is a secret hoodlum who mugs senior citizens in the shadows. In the very first scene we see him jumping an elderly man. Terry takes the man's wallet, then returns home in the wee hours. The next morning his Mum calls him down to breakfast, where his alcoholic sot of a father berates him cause he can't hold a job.
The harassment from his Dad is enough to stress him out, but it's nothing to what he feels when he sees the morning's headline. "Man Dies After Robbery". Terry knows it's his victim. The text makes that clear. What's worse is when Dad grabs the paper. "I hope he hangs", he says of the perpetrator. Terry shudders in his chair. But he can put up a good front, so he steels himself for the coming police investigation, and fends off the last several insults from Dad on his way out the door. At least he's got the backing of his Mum, who supports him for "trying to find his way".
The pacing of the film is unusual. An inordinate amount of time is spent on the dancers. I suppose it's one thing to go out to such a club and watch this kind of dance in person (though I'm not a Strip Club kind of guy), but if you linger on such a dance in a movie - which the director does, with several dancers for minutes at a time - you lose the forward motion of your plot. Most of this attention to the dancing takes place early on, but after Terry mugs the old man at the beginning of the movie, it's not until the half hour mark that the plot resumes cooking.
By now, the police are interviewing people associated with the club, patrons and employees alike. The mugging took place just outside in the alley, so the cops figure it's a good place to start. They talk to a gent named "Joe Lucas" (Brian Weske). Joe is a sketchy guy who plays around the edges of criminality. He's got an alibi. "I spent the night with Dimples", i.e. one of the dancers. But later on, he notices Terry freely spending money, splurging for drinks for himself and Sue. Terry never has a dime, Joe thinks. When the night winds down and the bar goes quiet, he confronts Terry with a proposition. "Y'know Terry.....them coppers was talkin' to me. They were askin' me did I know who mighta done it? And I told 'em no, cause at the time I really didn't. But now.....well let's just say I do. Know who did it, that is. Or at least I have a pretty good idea. Do you get the drift so far? Okay, good. Well, let's just say - in continuing - that I could 'forget' again, or 'have no idea' who done it, if that person were to pay me some money, say.......50 quid? It doesn't seem a lot, with what bills a certain person's been flashin' round tonight. Do you think that certain person might consider it"?
Terry's a nervous type. Instead of playing it cool and ignoring the blackmail attempt, he decks Joe, which only confirms his suspicion. Now Joe demands the 50 quid. "And that's only for starters, pal". Inside Terry's tough exterior is a scared kid who wants to run and hide. But he can't now cause it'll look suspicious, so - thinking quickly - he's keeps Joe at bay by promising him an even bigger sum "if you give me a chance to get it". He's referring to the sizeable stash of cash that's kept in the club's safe by the owner Jacko Fielding (John Chandos). Terry's seen the safe open when he's been in the office with Sue.
He knows he's got a shot because, just prior to this, his old pal Johnny's been paroled. Johnny is a safecracker who's last job included Terry. Johnny's been round his house to look him up. Two things complicate this possibility, however. 1) Sue is Johnny's girlfriend. If he discovers Terry's been hounding her, he's gonna be upset. 2) Terry has the money from their last safecracking job. Or at least he was supposed to. "You were holding it when I went down"!, Johnny yells. "Uh.....I'm sorry, Johnny. I had some debts, y'know. But I can get us some more......way more"!
"How much more are we talking"?
"How about ten times more"?
Thus Johnny agrees to the job, and from here the movie becomes part Heist Flick, as the two hoods plan for the robbery at the club. If successful, it will allow Terry to get Joe Lucas off his back and repay Johnny several times over for the loot he spent.
The issue of Sue will have to be settled, but she's on the back burner for now. One thing, however, that the boys should be considering, is Jacko Fielding. The Adam and Eve's owner has mob connections. Are they certain he's a man who should be messed with? The fact that he's played by John F. Chandos should be enough to answer that question!
Once you get past the half hour of dancing, this is a nice little crime flick. And hey, if scantily clad, gyrating ladies is your thing, you might not even mind the distraction. And I would've been fine with a normally edited scene (or even two), but as it stands these sequences are far too long, because again - Hello! Crime film here! - let's get back to the story! All that being said, the film more than makes up for it in the final 45 minutes. My goodness, David McCallum even acts! He's really good, too. Maybe we should forgive those wooden roles we saw him play earlier. Perhaps those were the anomalies, and he's actually got some talent. He will always be legendary in either case, just for having a Giant Head on "Outer Limits". On a side note, Wiki says that he and Jill Ireland were married at the time of this movie. She's good in it also, as is Kenneth Cope as Johnny and Brian Weske as the insinuative Joe Lucas. The domestic scenes showing Terry at home with Mum and Dad are classic Kitchen Sink, that British subgenre we mentioned earlier this year.
You'll like "Jungle Street Girls" for it's gutter level realism. Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is razor sharp, don't miss it. ////
The previous night's film was "State Secret", starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as an American surgeon who is asked to operate on a patient in a small foreign country. Some background is definitely in order. Fairbanks plays "Dr. John Marlowe", the inventor of a new procedure for treating portal hypertension. As he gains fame, he's invited to parties and testimonials. While in England for a conference, he's approached by a dignitary from "Vosnia", a country invented by the screenwriter that could represent either a fascist or communist dictatorship. The dignitary wants Dr. Marlowe's help. "Please, doctor. We have no one of your skill in our country. If you could come and save this man's life, just think what it would do for our relations, and global relations really. You could help bridge the gap between East and West"!
That pitch is enough to sell the humanitarian Dr. Marlowe, who boards a plane to Vosnia the next morning. When he gets there, he is welcomed by a military official (Jack Hawkins), who greets him with the excessive courtesy of a man who may have an ulterior motive.
During the operation, which is overseen by Hawkins, Marlowe discovers that his patient is the Vosnian dictator. Holy smokes. He realizes he's been duped into coming to the country. Now it's made crystal clear to him by Hawkins that if the patient dies, so will he. Where's the heck is Paul Shortino when you need him?
The operation fails. "I never claimed to have perfected it"! , Dr. Marlowe protests. "And you brought me here under false pretenses"! General Hawkins maintains his oily charm, presenting himself as a Fair Man with no choice. "I'm sorry to have to kill you, but it cannot get out to the people that our leader is dead". Why not? Because "the people" have just endorsed his "election". And that's the entire conundrum, because The People need a leader to believe in. They cannot lead themselves. And the puppet masters need a figurehead to control and dictate to The People, so it's a mutually beneficial deception. But if the dictator is dead, what will happen to The People?
Ahh yes........"the people". Whenever you hear The People parsed in politics, I suggest you run in the other direction. And what about Foster the People? What kind of freakin' band name is that?! Well anyhow...
The movie turns into a Chase Film after that, as Marlowe takes his one chance to skirt smilin' Jack Hawkins. After losing the authorities in the middle of the city, he takes refuge in a nightclub, where he corners a singer. "Lisa Robinson" (the great Glynis Johns) is half-English. She speaks the language and can help Dr. Marlowe escape. But will she? At first she wants no part, but because she's Glynis Johns, we need her empathetic altruism or Marlowe's goose will be cooked (and the movie would end prematurely).
What follows, then, is an Epic Chase over the Italian Alps, doubling for the Vosnian landscape. A local climber is enlisted to help. We watch Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in these scenes, and we wonder if he used a stuntman. I've always liked Fairbanks Jr. in the few movies we've seen him. He's got a Good Guy quality that comes through in his eyes. Yes, he was very handsome and intelligent, too, but it's that other quality, that genuine-ness, that sets him apart from the pack. Junior, or "Doug" as he was known, was an athlete like his more well known father. I'm guessing he did a lot of his own climbing in this film; whether on sets or the real Alps doesn't matter. It looks real enough, except the daunting cliffside shots, and Glynis Johns is no slouch either. She appears to be clambering up those mountainsides herself.
I won't spoil the ending, or the details of their dash, by revealing the fate of our heroes. Let's just say Jack Hawkins is looking for an "out", a political excuse, so he won't have to shoulder the blame or make excuses for his country's rotten philosophy. As we'll see, it's all done by smoke and mirrors anyhow.
Two Big Thumbs Up for "State Secret", and there you have it. A pair of most excellent pictures. They differ in style, but you could watch 'em as a double feature and be done in under three hours. If not, watch 'em two nights running.
That's all I know for now. I'm working on the book every day. I hope you're having a very nice evening and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment