The Sicilians

A Butcher's quickie that ambles through New York, London and Paris but was shot mainly at Shepperton. A strong female contingent includes an appealing Susan Denny, an elegant Ursula Howells, a shapely Aleta Morrison and a garrulous Patricia Hayes. Too bad the budget didn't run to colour.

THE SICILIANS is a kidnap thriller with an international feel incorporating New York, London, and Paris, although as it was made on the average Butcher's Film budget you can be sure that it never really convinces as a globe-trotting story. The story is about a Sicilian Mafia boss who rats on his former colleagues and has his son kidnapped as a result. A guy who works at the American embassy in London then has to try and rescue the kid before it's too late.

Although the plot has elements of interest in it, this is very much a lacklustre, not to mention dull, little production. The storyline is so unfocused that we never actually see the kidnapped boy throughout the production. Instead there are lots of scenes of chatting and characters wandering from place to place without the plot moving forward. Robert Hutton is a weak and ineffectual lead who routinely gets biffed over the head which doesn't really give the audience much belief in his character.

The supporting cast is better, with funny cameos from the likes of Warren Mitchell and Michael Balfour. But the pace is slow and stodgy and the leads are uninteresting. Even worse, the film is padded out with long and endless scenes of dance rehearsals and a woman singing, sometimes abruptly cutting to such interludes right in the middle of an important plot development! It's amateur film-making, it really is, and helps to sink THE SICILIANS throughout.

Robert Hutton was only 43 when he made this film yet he looks nearer 63.No doubt the effort of keeping his film career going.By the time this film was made he was nearing the end of the line.Sharing the fate of many actors of his generation.When their studio contract ended and their careers floundered ending up in British B films such as this.This film initially gives the impression that it is going to be about the mafia in New York.However it immediately switches to Paris then London and bounces back and forward between the two via stock footage.The film is rather curiously structured.There are no less than 4 musical numbers,and they sometimes interrupt important plot developments.Once suspects that this is mere padding.The film is ended in a fairly routine way.