The Frightened City (1961)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

A better than average script from Leigh Vance and director John Lemont and a highly charismatic performance from a pre-Bond Sean Connery give this British gangster picture something of a lift. It's hardly ground-breaking and the plot offers nothing new but it's tough and well cast, (as well as Connery there is excellent work from Herbert Lom and Alfred Marks as villains even if we do have to put up with the dull John Gregson on the right side of the law), and it passes ninety or so minutes pleasantly enough.

Surprisingly there is only one review for this film from the UK.I can say that I knew Soho well at the time this film was made when the protection rackets were controlled by the Krays and they really made the characters in this film seem like choirboys.Unlike Connery in the climax,witnesses were either to terrified to talk or were nobbled.I happened to be at the Old Bailey and was in court when the judge found the Krays not guilty.It was only their desire to match each other for killings that finally got them put behind bars.It is interesting to note that this film only got an "A" certificate so obviously the censor did not believe that it was that tough a film.Connery was third billed but clearly the star of the film.Alfred Marks ,one of my favourites,plays against type as a slimy crime boss who has his ambitions spiked in a painful way.A scene I have always remembered.This film was indicative of the direction in which the film industry was headed.

The Frightened City is one of several films where Sean Connery is getting more and more noticed, leading to the stardom he would obtain the following year as James Bond. Though he's third billed in The Frightened City, it's his performance you'll remember.Herbert Lom, a seemingly respectable businessman, is asked to launder some money by Alfred Marks one of London's top crime bosses. It occurs to Lom he's in unique position to make some really good money off all the crime bosses of London if they can be organized. Using Marks as a front, Lom does just that and the two of them hire Connery to be their chief enforcer in their protection racket.It all works out really well when the hoods are muscling small businessmen for protection, but when they start going after bigger targets David Davies becomes squeamish and Lom and Marks decide he's to be eliminated. They use Connery to set him up and when Connery realizes he's unwittingly helped do in a friend he becomes a man with a mission. It's never good to have Sean Connery with a mission after you.I think you can figure out the rest of the film. The Frightened City is a plot done many times over in American noir films which cycle had ended about five years earlier in America. This one gives you a nice glimpse of the seamier side of London. It was interesting by the way to hear the objections to going after big targets who might have influence with members of Parliament and the Home Office. Crooks are the same all over the world, pick on those you think can't fight back.John Gregson is the Scotland Yard inspector who heads what we would call the organized crime unit there. He represents the good guys, but it's the bad ones that make The Frightened City an interesting film.

A perspiring 1960s bloke, wearing a gabardine raincoat and Chelsea boots, is chased down an alleyway (no, not like that – he's wearing trousers after all.) In hot pursuit - a car (or motorcar, as they were known back then) which promptly drives into him, deliberately apparently, and at terrifying speed! 60s bloke may not be going anywhere but we are – round black and white London, aka the frightened city. It doesn't look all that frightened – no shots of people cowering in terror. But wait! In one of those sophisticated and seedy private drinking clubs – the sophistication implied by a shot of a soda siphon – "the chaps" are smashing the gaff up. "What we want is a law to catch villains and not hamper the police", opines Sayers (a policeman, not the bakers, played by John Gregson, who is far more hardboiled here than in Tomorrow at Ten). This is consistent with the theme that runs throughout the film of over-worked police pining for a mythical age of the gentleman crook.Enter Waldo (Herbert Lom) who has a master plan to get the top chaps together – one of whom, Harry (Alfred Marks) has a problem - a suitcase full of protection dough. "That's a problem?" asks Lom. (Harry is a superb character, a really early genuine representation of London villainy.) The heads of London's gangland firms promptly carve up the capital (quite literally) teaming up to keep the "teds and tearaways at bay", pooling resources and profits. Their no nonsense methods, however, begin to attract the attention of not only plod but the Home Secretary ("some of these boys are lively on the cosh.") Exit Tanky Thomas - and enter Damion (Sean Connery). Damion is a cat burglar whose partner, Wally (Kenneth Griffith) is currently indisposed after tumbling off a roof. "I've got to provide Wally with the comforts", says Connery (no explanation is proffered for the Scottish accent, by the way).Damion might be a burglar but he knows how to order a meal in fancy Italian restaurant Sanchetti's. He's also after some comforts for himself, by the look of it, namely Anya "I'm sorry, darlink" (Yvonne Romain). We first see her under Lom's wing – or, to be exact, pressed against the desk in his office. Miss Rush, Lom's secretary, has an annoying habit of popping in whilst Lom is trying to give Anya – ahem – career advice. He wants her to perform at The Temples ("It's not exactly the Palladium") a nightclub full of geriatric off duty brigadiers complete with eye popping monocles (her "I larffed at lerve" routine is beyond comedy) – whilst keeping an eye on Damion (she ends up giving him more than the eye). Damion thinks she's a sweet kid but Anya's really only a brass with Lom as her pimp – "Anya, meet Lord Bunch!" The protection alliance begins to fall apart when gang leader Alf gets the hump. So Alf hits back with his gang – supplemented by some yobbos he's brought down from Brum – and start smashing up the protection's interests. Sanchetti's even gets blown up by a handgrenade. Blimey!