Nice and sleazy does it... Jungle Street (1960)

This falls into that intriguing sub-genre of Soho strip-joint based dramas along with Beat Girl (released 28^th October 1960) and Expresso Bongo (released 1^st December 1959) and was probably the last to be released. It may lack the authenticity of the former – which used professional strippers – and the wit of the latter – which used Cliff Richard – but it’s noteworthy all the same.

There are some lukewarm reviews on IMDB for the film but it’s a convincing kitchen-sink crime drama with a memorable if occasionally jarring lead performance from David McCallum as the troubled petty crook Terry Collins. As Collins, McCallum never lets the intensity drop as a rebel with no cause but his own and no loyalty to family or friends. The exception to this is dancer Sue, played by McCallum’s then wife, Jill Ireland who I have to say provides the most stunning of catwalks for her moment in the club; she’s got star power to spare, as with her husband, and near infinite legs!

David McCallum

As with the excellent but underused Kenneth Cope, they bring out what there is of the drama and make this low budget Las Vegas a low-impact but compelling watch for a bank holiday afternoon; the showgirls may be faking it but the feeling of supressed violence and desperation is tangible.

All begins with an old man’s late-night bus journey from Notting Hill set to a swinging Harold Geller score. He arrives at his destination and gets fatally knocked out by a blackjack wielded by petty Terry who takes his money and throws his wallet down the drain.

We’ve had the violence so now it’s time for “sex” as we enter the Adam and Eve club presumably down a dark Soho Alley to find smiley Marian Collins introducing a variety of acts starting with “Dimples” (Vanda Hudson) in tight-fitting silver slacks and, initially at least, matching top, as she strips and sings “I’m Only a Girl” to row after row of pale, stale males sucking harder on their cigarettes with every gyration and discarded item of clothing; it’s definitely the singer and not the song.

Jill Ireland and her near infinte legs...

Terry arrives at the club just as a black dancer (Faye Craig) gives the film’s most overtly sexual performance – just as with Pascaline in Beat Girl… the differing moral standards of the age towards “native” dance and expression? He settles down to a short and salty exchange with Joe Lucas (Brian Weske) a lower league but established criminal who none-the-less has more street smarts.

Backstage, star attraction Sue, who is fending off the advances of club owner and gutter entrepreneur, Jacko Fielding (John Chandos) before taking to the stage. Sue’s dance is perhaps more graceful and composed than you’d expect in such a dive but Jill Ireland simply acts her way through it with a range of expressions that conveys much beyond the choreographed physical routine. With the occasional cut-away to an increasingly distracted Terry, she’s defiant, alluring and ultimately in control of the room. You get the feeling there could have been a much deeper story here.

But. Not today… what we get is not enough character development and a story that, whilst competently directed by Charles Saunders, falls between the twin stools of titillation, crime and socially aware drama.

Grumpy breakfast with mum and his ol' dad.

Terry’s tense breakfast with his belligerent Dad (Thomas Gallagher) and long-suffering mother (Edna Doré) starts with a close-up of a fry-up and abrasive exchanges that almost lead to violence; they’re a family on the brink and Terry’s either going to put up or shut up. The headline in The Daily Express tells him there is no going back as it’s revealed that his mugging has turned into a murder.

But no one seems to take Terry seriously and as the girls in the club, Dimples, Margo (Anne Scott) and another (Gillian Watt) laugh at him he slaps out and is floored by a fierce straight right from Dealer (Fred Griffiths). Terry just hasn’t got what it takes and just doesn’t know it and as Sue takes pity on him, getting him laid out in her dressing room her quickly turns from grateful of hateful as he forces himself on her.

Things are about to get worse for Terry though as his former partner in crime, Johnny Calvert (Kenneth Cope), gets early release from Wormwood Scrubs and comes looking for his share of the proceeds from the job that landed him in clink as well as his old love, Sue. Terry’s spent the money though, of course, but has a plan to rob the club and pay his mate back in spades.

Gillian Watt dances as Kenneth Cope and David McCallum make plans

Johnny’s hard to persuade though after making up with Sue – accepting his own part in her having to turn to this life even as Jacko is lining up a new star dancer Dolly (a brief cameo from Jacqueline Jones who was in Antonioni’s Il Grigo in 1957). Meanwhile the coppers have found the old man’s wallet and, having identified prints, are sweeping the neighbourhood trying to find the matching fingers…

Time is running out and everything will turn on the boy’s plan to rob the club – just one last job to get Johnny the money to get away with Sue and Terry’s only hope of escaping the law. What do you reckon’s going to happen?

Dusty Verdict: Jungle Street is very near the real thing and is saved by the grit of McCallum and the grace of Ireland. There’s decent support all round and you do end up caring about – most – of the characters although Terry’s a particularly un-redeeming character which, to be fair, is the point; we keep on expecting him to turn the corner but he can’t and whatever he sows, he reaps. Plenty of character actors to spot and there’s a smashing turn from Meier Tzelniker as elderly jeweller Mr. Rose. Shirley Anne Field has a bit part too although she doesn’t dance.

Attentive audience

Vanda Hudson

Marian Collins

Faye Craig

Jill Ireland

Anne Scott

Gillian Watt

John Chandos and Jacqueline Jones who had a much bigger role in Antonioni's acclaimed Il Grido (1957)

 

 

Frozen near closing time... Night of the Big Heat (1967)

There’s a sci-fi horror sub-genre involving dramas played out largely from the perspective of a village pub. The Doctor Who story, The Daemons, featured a possessed village and lots of pub action as did the cult kids’ serial Children of the Stones and no end of sixties films… after all, when the chips are down and your rural paradise is under threat of alien invasion, where better to be than the pub!?

This film was based on a book of the same name by John Lymington which had a number of screenwriters including Pip and Jane Baker who also wrote for The Doctor and for Jon Pertwee you can not only read the booming presence of Patrick Allen but also Peter Cushing who had just played the Doctor in two films.

Peter Cushing and Sarah Lawson

Director Terence Fisher makes the most of a limited budget with some superb atmospherics – not just in the pub – but also a pace that builds suspense slowly but inexorably until the inevitable disappointment of the monsters is revealed and the story winds up with almost indecent haste. The cast do pretty well with an uneven script and lines such as “you little fool!” (repeated twice) and “she was nothing more than a common slut, a slut I tell you… it meant nothing!" (or something like that).

The pleasure is in these familiar faces and their beer-swilling journey into mystery…

Angela arrives past the secret base...

...and in a very flash car!

There’s an interesting beginning as a young woman Angela Roberts (the lovely Jane Merrow – one of the faces of the Sixties!) drives her white sports car past a radio research station on the Isle of Fara. As she sweeps down country lanes, throwing her luscious hair back to the wind, we find Christopher Lee – the mysterious Doctor Godfrey Hanson – setting up cameras and mirrors. The camera cuts from he to she and you wonder if they will collide but no, Fisher cleverly has them intersecting down a lane, he just missing her speedster all after the real impact of the moment has been seen in the death of a tramp – killed by forces unknown near the Doctor’s camera set up.

Christopher Lee senses unnatural forces at work

Angela’s sports car breaks down, having over-heated and she gets a helping hand from Tinker Mason (Kenneth Cope) who explains about the extraordinary heatwave round these parts. Angela finally arrives at The Swan pub, where she is to be a secretary to a writer, Jeff Callum (Allen) who owns the premises with his wife, Frankie (Sarah Lawson). Walking past the predatory gaze of Tinker and his pal Bob Hayward (Thomas Heathcote) she enters the bar to find Frankie serving the local GP, Dr. Vernon Stone (Peter Cushing).

The locals are impressed with...

Jane Merrow and her lovely face

There’s something about the young woman’s attitude and, yes, the way she cradles one of Jeff’s hardbacks, that suggests she is more than a newcomer and, sure enough, as Jeff goes to collect her at the beach his face drops as he realises who has arrived.

Legs akimbo in a flowery bikini, Angela reels in her former lover… he won’t be escaping her that easily.

Dressed to impress

Jeff panics at the sight of Angela's bikini...

So, as Jeff wrestles with the old lust vs love quandary, strange sounds and mysterious events starts piling up: sci-fi horror, like life, is something that happens whilst you’re busy making plans.

The heat is intolerably high leaving the island’s inhabitants in a fog of slow-motion lizard logic as Ben Siddle’s sheep get fried and Bob perishes near a gravel quarry another frozen in terror as an unseen entity seems to burn the life from him.

As the heat rises in the love triangle between the published, publican, his wife and secretary, Jeff finds the time to find out what the secretive professor is doing and it’s not good news…

The professor reveals all

All the camera tech has been used in an attempt to identify an alien race who have made their way to Earth following the emanations from the islands radio transmitters. They feed on heat and have raised the temperature on the island as they push on to absorb more heat from animals, human and research station alike.

The evidence soon mounts to support the Professor’s ideas as one by one the locals get fried.

As Jeff and Frankie’s marriage heads for the rocks as Angela tells all, the reality of the invasion overtakes their concerns as the struggle just to survive takes over…

Preparing for the worst in the pub

Dusty verdict: Sometimes the dialogue creaks and sometimes the effects are less than special but this is an enjoyable film that maintains momentum.

Jane Merrow is one of my favourite actresses of the period and she does well even when her every appearance is accompanied by romantic easy listening strings from Malcolm Lockyer’s score.

The two Hammer legends are, of course, class acts and both don’t really have enough to do: Peter Cushing hanging around the bar as if he’s doing a favour for a friend whilst Christopher Lee just has to look earnest and mysterious (not a problem!).

Patrick and his jaw of resolution

Kenneth Cope’s character is overcome by the heat and lust for Jane M and tries to assault her whilst she may eventually find solace in the firm grip of the research station’s manager, Ken Stanley (William Lucas). Patrick Allen is dynamic as always and makes for a believable flawed hero, in spite of his un-pc description of his lover…

Jane Merrow 

The film – also known in United States as Island of the Burning Damned – is available on DVD and is well worth checking out if you’re seeking undemanding period sci-fi, a pretty girl in a fast car and the welcoming atmosphere of a country pub under threat of alien disintegration!

You can buy it from Amazon and the usual places…and on blu-ray too!