Displaying items by tag: Alfred Marks

JOHNNY YOU’RE WANTED

UK, 1956, 70 minutes, Black-and-white.

John Slater, Alfred Marks, Gary Marsh, Christine Halward.

Directed by Vernon Sewell.

A small British film from the mid-1950s, directed by Vernon Sewell who directed many such supporting features in these years. It is a star vehicle for John Slater who was best known later for 420 episodes of Z-Cars. Alfred Marks has a more comic role as a sinister seller of novelties.

Slater plays a lorry driver who picks up a frightened woman on the road – and later she is discovered murdered. The police follow through the investigation, discover it is linked with importation of drugs from continental Europe and their distribution through an actor, posing as a fortune-teller, clients receiving their drugs in the theatre.

The lorry driver tries to investigate and follow through clues, getting in the way of the police. He is also attracted to the assistant to the fortune-teller.

Conventional but enjoyable – and, quite a surprise for fans of Are You Being Served to find Frank Thorton, 20 years earlier, as a straightforward police inspector, much like many of similar actors of his day. The comedy was to come much later and, very successfully.

SHE'LL HAVE TO GO

UK, 1962, 89 minutes, Black-and-white.

Bob Monkhouse, Alfred Marks, Hattie Jacques, Anna Karina, Dennis Lotis, Graham Stark, Clive Dunn, Hugh Lloyd, Peter Butterworth.

Directed by Robert Asher.

A very broad British farcical comedy, based on a play, typical of popular comedies in Britain in the early 1960s – and, with some of the humour that characterises the Carry On comedies.

Bob Monkhouse was a popular film and television personality, Alfred Marks more serious. The Carry On the connection can be seen with the presence of Hattie Jacques, much more dominating and posh as an intrusive journalist. A number of popular British comedians of the time have comedy cameos, Graham Stark, before the Pink Panther films, as the journalist’s cameraman, Clive Dunn as a bumbling chemist, Hugh Lloyd as a pompous lawyer, Peter Butterworth as a shortsighted doctor getting himself into tangles.

However, the surprise for many cineastes who come across this comedy is the presence of Anna Karina, the Danish born actress who appeared in films for many decades, a variety of films in the UK, US, European countries – but is still best known as the wife of Jean-Luc Godard in the 1960s and starred in a number of his memorable films of the 1960s. Most would not associate her with this kind of British comedy.

Two brothers, novelists, live in a mansion, little income, manservant played by Dennis Lotis, getting news that a remote cousin was going to inherit the house and probably oust them. The title indicates the tone of the film, the option of marrying her and retaining the money or of murdering her. Which means there are some romantic scenes and several attempts on her life. She arrives, charms the journalist, charms the man servant, escapes all the attempts on her life, then turns the tables on them.

A great number of farcical situations, puns and quips, exaggerations all round. Nowadays mainly for film historians.

THE FRIGHTENED CITY

UK, 1961, 97 minutes, Black-and-white.

Herbert Lom, Sean Connery, John Gregson, Alfred Marks, Yvonne Romain.

Directed by John Lemont.

The Frightened City is in the early 1960s, a shift in some British films to black-and-white, crime features, corruption, especially in London, films like Expresso Bongo.

The screenplay takes protection rackets in London very seriously, references to Chicago mobs but this time a focus on the police, their pessimism about what was happening to the city, their work, and the presentation of the criminals but in no way glamourising them.

Herbert Lom plays a suave accountant, an influencer and mastermind. John Gregson plays the very serious-minded police inspector. Alfred Marks is a confident criminal, not presented as likeable in any way. Yvonne Romain is a singer.

But, the main interest is in Sean Connery, who had been in films and television for many years but was emerging as a more prominent actor, this film appearing the year before his first James Bond film, Dr No.

1. A thriller of its time. Black-and-white, city crime, police, protection rackets? Comparisons with American films, reference to Chicago?
2. The situation in London, 1960s, criminals, protection rackets, thugs causing havoc in shops and restaurants, proprietors paying protection? The role of the police, confronting criminals, the arrests?
3. Inspector Sayers, his team, serious minded, desperate about the situation in London? Interrogations, confrontations, confessions, persuasion? The other members of the team?
4. Waldo, accountant, money matters, schemes, his connections, suave manner, treatment of his secretary, his promotion of Anya, going to the club, her job? His connections, Harry, the protection racket, the interview with Paddy, the transition to injection for big companies, building sites…?
5. Harry, criminal activities, the range of thugs, some old-fashioned, codes, the scenes of upset in restaurants, the owners, the havoc, paying protection? Not informing the police?
6. Anya, documentation, singing, Waldo and the relationship, the nightclubs, singers, dancers, rehearsals, her success? The encounter with Paddy, the relationship?
7. Paddy, a Sean Connery character, petty thief, his partner and his injuries, approached by Harry, interviewed by Waldo, his phone calls, persuasion, at the restaurant, the fake fight, getting protection money? His advice for the protection money from companies, the interviews, suave manner? Seeing Anya, his friendship with Sadie, the relationship, his being used for the killing of the old-time criminal, his reaction, his former partner supporting him to tell the truth, with Inspector Sayers, the pressure, his setting up Waldo, setting up Harry, the final fight, deaths, arrests? The influence of Sadie?
8. The protection rackets of the past, the American models, continuous protection in later decades, bikie gangs, corrupt union officials …?
9. The dialogue from Inspector Sayers and the very serious minded perspective on crime and criminals rather than sensationalist action films?