Crime Unlimited

This film is a mystery which concerns a rather sick man who loves to play chess and laughs like a Bela Lugosi who loves to cause all kinds of problems and is being investigated by Pete Borden, (Esmond Knight) as an undercover police man and gets deeply involved with Natasha, (Lilli Palmer) who made her first film debut and adds a great deal of charm to this rather old B picture from England and produced by First National Pictures. If you are interested what woman's hairs styles looked like and the clothes that they wore, this is a great film to enjoy along with the old automobiles that were driven during the Year 1935. Lilli Palmer was so well liked, she eventually came to the United States and married Rex Harrison and the both of them had a great career together.

A mysterious criminal mastermind has everyone in London in an uproar. Policeman Esmond Knight goes undercover as a crook to infiltrate the organization.

It's an Edgar Wallace sort of movie, with a villain so mad he plays chess and giggles at his own cleverness, with a nice cast, including Lilli Palmer and Cecil Parker. It's also pretty much impossible to figure out until you are told the ending. Still, it's well directed by Ralph Ince, who took his duties as Warner Brothers' Teddington studio seriously. They might be there to produce quota quickies, but there's no rule against doig a good job; and he signed Erroll Flynn to a contract and gave him his first substantial role (in a movie now lost).

Ince was the youngest of the three Ince Brothers; Thomas was the best remembered, as it was he who figured out how to produce movies on pretty much an assembly line. Ralph who an actor and director. His presence in England allowed him to direct three or four movies a year. He died in 1937 at the age of 50.

This proves that with a good scripted, intelligent story, a film doesn't need a big budget to enjoyable. For a change, cheap tacky production and unimaginative direction actually results in a fairly riveting little picture.

Former American bit-part player, now English quota quickie director Ralph Ince injects gallons of life into this. It's all go - there's never a dull moment - it's all action. Ince doesn't do anything particularly interesting, clearly he was no Hitchcock but the story is so fast, you don't get a chance to notice. The acting is also pretty decent too: Edmond Knight is surprisingly charismatic as the undercover cop. Twenty year old blonde Lilli Palmer doesn't look anything like the lovely Lilli Palmer we're used to seeing but nevertheless gives a believable performance.

A lot of Britain's early thirties cheap quota quickies were atrocious but they shouldn't all be tarred with the same brush. This is....well not a classic but in a different league to its contemporaries. If you like a good old exciting police story, you might enjoy this.

Crisply paced British crime story about a gang of jewel thieves preying on high society is reminiscent of the David Niven/Olivia de Havilland caper RAFFLES. This one is about a man who appears to be a dapper thief eluding Scotland Yard. It turns out he is posing as a thief, but is really a lawman infiltrating a jewelry gang and working for Scotland Yard.

LILLI PALMER, looking almost unrecognizable in her first screen role with the usual plucked eyebrows of the '30s style, deftly handles the role of a girl who participates in the gang robberies. All of the Scotland Yard scenes are well handled by a cast of British actors.

ESMOND KNIGHT gives an appealing performance as the lawman impersonating a dapper jewel thief in true David Niven style, always fashionably attired. Palmer plays a girl who lives by her wits but wants out of the crime game and wants Knight to quit too. Both of them have never met Maddick, the head of the gang, but fear him. The surprise is in the revelation of Maddick.

Summing up: Routine story, very British style, offers nothing new in the way of crime capers.

I am currently reading the autobiography of Edmond Knight.He was contracted by Irving Asher to make quota quickies.He considered this to be one of the better ones.He had done screen tests with four potential leading ladies when he was asked to do a fifth.The actress was Lilli Palmer. The film used one of Edgar Wallace's favourite pot devices.The gang controlled by a mysterious unknown leader. Ralph Ince,brother of Thomas,directs at speed