A band of criminals rob a dog track and get away with a lot of money.... and a murder. The police start closing in on the one with the loot, and the head of the gang explains to a henchman that if he's caught, he'll squeal. It all winds up with reporter Kent Taylor on a bus that the desperate crooks hijack.

It's a rather confusing plot, with some fine performers acting in character, under the direction of R. G. Springsteen. Springsteen was a fine western director for Republic, and did a good job when given a shot outside the field. He certainly delivers here for Republic in their second British production, although the script is a bit muddled, and far more violent than most British movies were; clearly this was intended for American production, but Republic had all this cash sitting in Britain, just like the major studios. Still, there are good, roles for Petula Clark, Renee Houston, and Walter Rilla.

This is a sort of British version of film noir. While it has many qualities of noir (such as vile bad guys, killings and a lack of sentimentality),it lacks the usual language, style and cinematography you might associate with the genre. Because of this, although the film is pretty good, it lacks the style to make it great.

The film begins with a robbery of a racetrack. During the robbery, a guard is killed and the gang takes off in a car...only to crash and then scatter. The weak link in the gang is Rick...and the police are soon looking for this loser. However, instead of staying put and playing it cool, he tries to double-cross the gang and ends up on the run. He ends up on a bus with a bunch of characters--some of which are horrible. The drunk, while entertaining, is way over- played and makes the film seem a bit light in spirit--which is odd considering its other dark qualities. There are also a couple characters that simply don't make a lot of sense. Still, it's modestly entertaining and worth your time. It's a shame, as with a slight re-write it could have been exceptional.

I've seen a number of British b-movies from the 50s that feature an American star and were distributed stateside by Lippert Pictures. This film, although made in Britain with an all-British supporting cast, stars American actor Kent Taylor (an actor in the Robert Taylor mode, for those not familiar with him---probably best known to audiences under 50 for his Al Adamson and Filipino horror films) and was directed by longtime Republic pictures director R. G. Springsteen--it was released in the USA by Republic. The film begins with a dog-track robbery, then veers off into the story of one of the robbery's participants, his girlfriend, and her sister (played well by Petula Clark who, unlike in her French crime film DAGGERS DRAWN, does not sing here),and then by a cleverly plotted coincidence newspaper reporter Kent Taylor, who was in the police station after the crime was committed, gets brought into the story, although he is following something else. I won't give too much away, but in the classic "petrified forest" tradition, much of the film takes place in a limited setting with a limited number of characters--a tempermental actress, her manager, a drunk, a young mother, Kent Taylor, Petula Clark, and others who shall remain nameless as I won't be a spoiler. Each character is well drawn, there's even some comic relief, and Mr. Taylor brings his usual class to the film. There are no great surprises here, but it's an entertaining way to kill 75 minutes for the fan of b-crime and mystery films. Director Springsteen went on to direct a number of Western tv shows in the late 50s and early 60s and then a number of A.C. Lyles productions in the mid-60s--a personal favorite of mine is HOSTILE GUNS with George Montgomery and Tab Hunter. His final film is the obscure TIGER BY THE TAIL starring Christopher George from 1968, which I've always wanted to see. The few references I've seen to this film are due to Petula Clark's being in it. She is excellent, and while watching it I completely forgot that she was Petula Clark, singing star, because she played the character so well. My only complaint is that Kent Taylor seems a little too old to be attempting to romance her (KT was 48 at the time, PC was 23). Other than that, this is solid b-movie entertainment. My copy was taped off CBN in 1984...hope you can find one. If ONLY tv still showed films like this!