Room 43

What a wonderful surprise! I was hopeful but not particularly expectant of good things here but it seemed worth a look with a warning preface from 'Fabian of the Yard', a starring role for Herbert Lom and appearances from Diana Dors and Eddie Constantine. In the event this turns out very well, nothing like as scandalous today as it would have been back in the late 50s but still fairly tough and uncompromising. Constantine, a veteran of 'B' pictures whose real claim to fame would come a few years later when Goddard would utilise his rugged looks in Alphaville plays an heroic taxi cab driver against Herbert Lom who plays the baddest of men in charge of a vice ring. Both men are particularly effective and the film, directed and lit like a noir, serves them both well. Also served well is Diana Does, her magnificent full on appearance at the start and the comment about belonging in the gutter as she smiles makes it see she may be limited to this wondrous cameo but no, she puts in a great performance throughout, the seeming excess of make-up probably more down to the fantastic clarity of the new Blu-ray. Vivid but hard to identify west London location predominate with most seeming in the Bayswater area. There is one particular scene, very unusual in British films, showing a whole area of a smart looking street with numerous ladies of the night arranged about and approaching passers by and a close-up of an ultra smart looking Whiteleys of Queensway. The seeming romantic interludes are probably a little overdone but from start to finish this is a fast moving and, if not as exploitative as suggested, certainly more lurid than might have been expected for a 60+ year old film shot on the streets of London and Walton on Thames.

I fully expected this to be as lurid as its title but watched it anyway, probably because I first found it under its much cooler name, Room 43. Glad I did; it's immediately engrossing. A sweet French waitress is framed into prostitution. The first step is to set her up as a "thief" at her place of work. Then the madam, who works for the pimp, swoops in to "save" her and whisk her off to England. Once there they tell her she needs to marry a brit to stay there, enter our hero cabbie. This is all in service of forcing her into the life. There are some wonderfully 50s bombshells to contrast against her innocence which is underscored by her finding and adopting a kitten, as well as and other beauties of the era.

AKA..."Passport to Shame"

More Melodrama than Usual in this "Sexploitation" Cinema, Complete with the "Worn-Out" Intro by Law Enforcement (Fabian of the Yard), Making Sure Everyone Takes This as a "Public Service" and Not Something for the "Raincoat" Crowd.

Sporting a Good Cast of Herbert Lom (the Dapper Pimp), Eddie Constantine (the White Knight), and Diana Dors (Tart with a Heart).

Diana's White Skin-Tight-Clinging Dresses, Cotton-Candy Platinum Hair and Full-Lipped Makeup, High-Light the Eye-Popping Cheesecake. She Always Added some Acting-Chops.

Herbert Lom is All-Business, that being the Business of "White-Slavery-Trafficking", who Speaks in Threatening Mono-Tone, as He Frequently Steps-Aside and His Thugs Pummel Anything in His Way.

He is Also Not Above Sprinkling Acid on a Pretty-Face who Doesn't Cooperate.

Cult B-Actor Constantine is the "Love-Interest" Hunk that Rescues Oldile Versois, a French Immigrant being Groomed for the "Big-Spenders".

There's a Surreal "Drug-Induced" Segment with Swirling Fog, Collapsing Sets, Filled with High-Decibel Screams, as Hammer's William Asher, with the Help of Nicholas Roeg On Hand for some Stunning Camera-Work.

Overall, a bit Dense and Drawn-Out, and the Cab-Calvary to the Rescue is Over-the-Top.

More Intriguing than it Should be, it Remains an Above Average Film of its Type and it Definitely...

Worth a Watch.

Diana Dors was stunning. Tight sheath dresses, a pretty face and cotton white hair. She didn't have to act. All she had to do is show up with an attitude, "I am here. Be grateful."

The movie doesn't need a plot. You'll be too busy staring at Diana and wondering how she got a comb through that dry, bleached hair.

She plays an entertainer.

"What does an entertainer do?" "I entertain."

Among the sundry delights to be found in this British white slavery sexpose is the gonzo turn by Herbert Lom. As London's mac daddy supreme Nick Biaggi, Lom is a sight to behold, a horn-doggie dandy in homburg, lapel carnation and spats (au courant fashion be damned). He's low-key at first, oozing oily charm and generosity, the better to bamboozle naive French waif Odile Versois, who's been lured into a life of shame by Lom's field procurer/mamasan/mistress Brenda De Banzie. But behind closed doors it's a whole 'nother Herb. Channeling his inner Michael Gough, he's all over Odile like a cheap suit, manhandling her love handles and assaulting her face with wet, slobbering kisses. It's truly an unhinged spectacle; even Lom's toupee looks like it has an erection.

Also in the house: affable tough guy Eddie Constantine as the world's least likely Canadian, the always welcome Robert Brown (Tumak's dad in One Million Years B.C., 'M' in the Bond films of the '80s) as a two-fisted cabbie who rouses his fellow hacks to do battle with the 'ho-mongers, Diana Dors, poured into bum-busting skirts and Frederick's of Soho lingerie, as a hooker with a score to settle, and, as the groom at a wedding party, a remarkably young Michael Caine.

All this plus a wacky weed-induced dream scene that must be seen to be disbelieved.

Lowdown high times guaranteed.