Last night, in "Scarlet Thread"(1951), Laurence Harvey is "Freddie", a pickpocket starving until he tries lifting the wallet of "Mr. Marcon" (Sydney Tafler), a professional thief. Marcon stops Freddie in the act, threatening to summon a nearby policeman. When Freddie begs him not to, Marcon feels sorry for his ineptness and offers him dinner at his house. As they enter, two hoods ambush them and try stealing Marcon's briefcase which is jammed with jewels. It's then that Freddie proves his worth, as a fighter. He beats the thugs and saves Mr. Marcon, who is otherwise helpless with a crippled arm. Marcon thus sees he can use Freddie as a bodyguard, and gives him money to buy new clothes to look sharp. Marcon, through a successful career of thievery, is loaded. He lives in a penthouse and presents himself as a sophisticate. Freddie, though an uneducated tough, is handsome and quick-witted. He wants in on Marcon's action, and the kind of women it attracts.
Marcon has a big smash-n-grab job coming up, at a top-end jewelry store in Cambridge, near the university. His colleague "Sam" (Harry Fowler) doesn't trust Freddie, thinks he's jumpy, and Sam is proven right when, during the robbery, Freddie panics and shoots a man on the sidewalk who happened to get in the way. The fallen bystander was a Cambridge professor emeritus, an old and distinguished man, beloved in the campus town. "I told you no guns!" Marcon shouts at Freddie as they run away, pursued by a dozen Cambridge students. Sam, their getaway driver, bails after the shooting and has the old professor's body in his car.
Marcon and Freddie barely outrun the students in pursuit, and manage to enter a gate at Masters College, which is part of the Cambridge campus. They're hiding in a garden, having ditched their raincoat disguises, and fortunately for them, they look proper and distinguished when the lady of the administrative house sees them and walks up. "Hello, may I ask who you gentlemen are?" Marcon, being erudite, saves the day by introducing himself as a Cambridge alumnus. "I just wanted to see the old garden again." He introduces Freddie as a visiting American (because actor Harvey can do a convincing American accent).
At this point, the final hour of the 76 minute film becomes a criminal fish-out-of-water situation in which Marcon and Freddie must ingratiate themselves with "Miss Josephine" (Kathleen Byron), the pretty Lady of Masters House. Freddie, a fast mover, comes on strong to the reserved but restless Josephine, who falls for him, even though a lanky, black-cloaked professor who also courts her, brings news of the recent jewel robbery that occurred just blocks away. He even gives descriptions of the robbers, but Josephine thinks it couldn't be Mr. Marcon and the "American" Freddie. They're just too nice, not to mention charming.
Things hold together for the pair until Marcon decides to stash a valuable stolen necklace behind some books in the Masters House library. This plot point is hard to believe, because why would he hide the necklace, then attempt to retrieve it again ten minutes later? What is his reason for hiding it? More egregious is that Freddie would hold on to his handkerchief mask from the robbery, which has been identified by a witness as having red lipstick marks on it, from kisses he earlier wiped off. In that respect, there are a couple of stretched plot points, but what's interesting about this film is the Cambridge campus setting, because the two robbers must therefore blend in with articulate, scholarly professors and fit like they belong there. Mr. Marcon does a good job of faking recollection his professor's names when he "attended Masters". But the duo's downfall is of course romance, when Freddie gets too hooked on the innocent Josephine. Two Big Thumbs Up, almost Two Huge. The picture is very good. Actor Laurence Harvey went on to superstardom with "Room at the Top" and "The Manchurian Candidate". The finale is set against a Cambridge fireworks tradition, and in an interesting side note, David Gilmour's father was a Cambridge professor. ////
The previous night, heist films don't get much better than "Ambush in Leopard Street"(1962), in which "Harry" (Michael Brennan), a beefy career criminal, has one last job to pull before retiring, or at least that's what he's promised his wife, who says "that's what you told me last time you got out of prison." This time, they've got a child, a little girl, and Harry he swears he's doing it for her and for all of them as a family. "It's a big one, darlin', 500,000 lbs in diamonds. We'll be so rich we can live on the Riviera. We'll be set for life, that's why I'll never have do another." But as Heist Movie fans, we know that the One Last Job motif has a double meaning, because it's inevitable that the Last Job will be exactly that, but for altogether different reasons than retiring from a life of crime.
Harry's bigger sin, in the eyes of his wife, is recruiting her younger, naive brother "Johnny" (James Kenny) to assist, by acting as a come-on to a gal who works for the diamond broker. Harry and his professional mates have staked her out, discovered her personal history with men, and are using Johnny as a lover boy to set her up romantically. They want him to get close to her, and gently extract the info about when the diamonds are to be moved by truck. Johnny courts her after deliberately "meeting" her at a cafe. She's been burned by men, but Johnny is fresh faced and aw-shucks nervous, which she finds appealing. He's also about fifteen years younger, cute in his sweater vest, and the 35-ish woman is flattered. She takes him to symphony concerts. Johnny plays along according to Harry's plan of getting the diamond-transfer information out of her. But at heart Johnny's a nice boy. He feels terrible about deceiving the lady, not to mention leaving a trail when, after the robbery, she eventually figures out he's tricked her. Johnny at one point tells Harry he wants out of the job. He's never broken a law in his life. But as Harry explains, "You promised, and you don't break promises to chaps like Kegs (their cohort). He'll kill ya."
Johnny feels trapped. He's been using a fake name on the jewelry clerk. She won't be able to trace him after the fact, but he just doesn't wanna get mixed up in a major half-million pound diamond robbery. Then a curveball hits the gang in the form of an unforeseen player in the heist, a rival gangster named Big George. He knows about the diamond transfer also, but according to Harry, "Big George can't make a move. The coppers got him staked out." Big George is indeed being watched, but that doesn't meant he can't get the diamonds. Two Big Thumbs Up, again bordering on Two Huge. You cannot make a better heist film in 56 minutes, and this one is as good as most that are twice that long. The actual robbery takes place in the last ten minutes of the movie, and unfolds about as you'd expect. The picture is very good. ////
That's all for tonight. My blogging music is again "Stranger in Us All" by Rainbow. Ritchie's playing is exceptional on that record. I saw a Facebook post from Robert Fripp noting Sir Richard as a very early influence: "I was 17 and attended a concert by The Outlaws, where I saw Ritchie Blackmore, who was 18. He had it all, the sound, the playing, and the music. It was phenomenal." RB will be 78 on Friday and has been gigging since 1961! My late night is Handel's Aetsi Opera. I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment