Undercover Girl

Highly prolific British Director Francis Searle has under his belt some noteworthy B films like CLOUDBURST or WHISPERING SMITH HITS LONDON, but he cannot hide poor form in UNDERCOVER GIRL.

Incidentally, I am at a loss as to this title. There is no undercover police or other girl, most of the girls who appear in the film appear to be under life threat or close, so why anyone in that situation should be foolish enough to go undercover into the vipers' nest would be tough to fathom.

The ludicrous and deceitful title aside, Paul Carpenter drives a nail in the film's coffin by posting a performance mediocre enough to match those of Kay Callard, Jackie Collins or Monica Grey. In fact, the only female who grabbed my attention was "Miss Brazil", alluringly played by Maya Koumani but a completely unnecessary role in the plot.

Bruce Seton steals the show in the small part of criminal king pin Ted Austin, even if his final fisticuff against Carpenter leaves much to be believed, beginning with the fact that he could have shot Carpenter dead and settled the issue without exposing himself to a punchup.

Dull cinematography by Geoffrey Faithfull, even duller score by Trytel, to match the dull script by Bernard Lewis.

Though only 69' long, UNDERCOVER GIRL is an out and out waste of time.

Enthusiastic photographer "Carter" (Paul Carpenter) is determined to investigate a dodgy nightclub owner whom he thinks is behind the killing of his brother-in-law. Meantime, his gal "Joan" (Kay Callard) is concerned that her naive and innocent sister "Peggy" (Jackie Collins - yep, that one!) is getting herself too closely entangled with this self same hood - "Ted" (Bruce Seton). Before long, "Carter" is knee-deep in a blackmailing and drug-running racket but can he get to the bottom of things before he, too, goes the way of the dodo? The story is actually a little more sophisticated than the routine - faking accidents to extort cash and to coerce the victims into helping with their lucrative peddling, but the dialogue is way too plentiful and there is a lot of padding - especially the scenes with the "Miss Brazil" (Maya Koumani) that rips the pace out of the film quite successfully. Seton really doesn't engender the slightest sense of malice - though maybe that's because he has been in so many of these B-features that his face is synonymous with just about every role you'd care to mention, and that does impact on the potency of his characterisations. It ends as you'd expect and is entirely forgettable stuff, sorry.

When his brother-in-law is killed, two-fisted magazine photographer Paul Carpenter goes looking for the guy who did it. His quest leads him to a hit-and-run racket, combined with blackmail, as well as a bevy of beautiful birds, including Kay Callard, Monica Grey, Jackie Collins and Maya Koumani (whose character name is "Miss Brazil").

For a cheap Butchers' second feature, it's an unpretentious, amusing little film, directed by Francis Searle. Searle was one of those British directors who directed cheap movies, mostly thrillers, and brought them in on budget, about a good as his mediocre scripts and short budgets would let him. Here's one where no one seems to have take it very seriously, and it works better for it. The result is a pleasant time-waster.

Undercover is a cheap B film filler with film noir intentions. Johnny Carpenter, an American journalist in London. He sets out to find why his brother in law, Billy Peters, also a journalist was killed.

Carpenter finds a bunch of gangsters running scams such as extorting people who would be involved in set up accidents after they were drugged and allegedly ran over an elderly gentleman in a drugged state. They are also involved in drug dealing as well.

There is nothing too involving or exciting here. A lot of the scenes have interior settings. There is a pointless photo shoot involving a beautiful model. Author Jackie Collins has an early acting role who plays the sister of Carpenter's girlfriend and is also mixed up with the gangsters.

Despite the title, the sleuthing is nearly all in the hands of 'B' movie stalwart Paul Carpenter in this talky (and in places sloppily post-synced) little period piece set in cheap-looking 'luxury' apartments which matter of factly breezes through a tawdry plot involving murder and narcotics. (It was only when Maya Koumani turned up as 'Miss Brazil', sporting a tight shiny dress and a phony foreign accent that I realised that I'd actually seen this tinny little quickie on Central Television about twenty five years ago; which shows how memorable it all was.)

Sometimes interestingly lit by Jimmy Harvey, the mood music provided by Twickenham Films veteran Bill Trytel occasionally livens things up, and the women naturally all look awesome in the fifties style; although the amount of drinking & smoking shows that it's not just the snazzy threads that 'Mad Men' got right!