Never Let Go

Some people have said that he is over the top, but I think that is so only if you consider all of his comedic performances and satires. How can I believe this fellow is the incompetent Clouseau and also wince every time his character in this film walks into a room, expecting him to explode with the violence that is obviously seething in him.

Sellers plays the owner of an auto repair shop that runs a ring of car thieves on the side. Then one day his gang of teen thieves steal the car of John Cummings (Richard Todd). Cummings is a mediocre salesman of cosmetics who has just bought the car but not bought full coverage insurance. He only has liability. So with the cosmetics company's son taking over the practical running of the business and implying that Cummings' job is in danger, and Cummings thinking that this car and being able to get to more places quickly is the secret to holding on to that job, he begins to investigate the crime himself, and soon he is getting very close to the truth.

Meanwhile, he finds out from his wife that she sees him as a perpetual dreamer and failure, and she is OK with that, but she is not OK with him getting mixed up with a bunch of hoods to get his car back, but unfortunately Cummings has focused in on reclaiming his car as a way of proving that he can finish what he starts, that he is not the failure his wife says that he is.

In the middle of this you have a dispassionate police inspector, and a couple of kids in love who have no real options in life. Unfortunately one is Meadows' mistress and the other is one of his gang of thieves.

This thing, on what was probably a shoe-string budget is an incredibly engaging movie. There's great dialogue, a tremendous use of music in ratcheting up the tension, and towards the end I felt like I was watching Marshall Dillon of Gunsmoke (Cummings) steeling himself to face down some bank robber (Meadows) on Main Street in Dodge City.

There is just not one wasted minute in this entire production. I highly recommend it.

This is not as great a film as the comments lead me to believe. However, it is a well done piece of work and obviously done on a very modest budget. The story is a bit heavy-handed in places, and the scene where the wife tells her husband that he's a loser is very hard to believe. That all being said, it is a dreary, gritty slice of England in the early sixties and is a showcase for the dramatic talents of Peter Sellers. While some of the supporting roles are well done, Sellers shines like a bright diamond with his intense and convincing portrayal of a carjacker, free of any moral pretense. If this film had been widely seen, I am convinced that many directors would have tried to get Sellers into more serious roles. His ability to leave all traces of the Goon comedy figure behind is truly astounding. If you are interested in post-war English cinema, this is an interesting film. If you are a fan of Peter Sellers, it's a must see.

I've only ever seen this film once, and only recently found out its title! I won't go over the plot here as this has been well covered by other reviewers. Suffice to say that this low-budget British film punches way above its weight and features some great performances, especially that of Peter Sellers who puts in a particularly riveting turn as the car-napper. Richard Todd's performance as the mild mannered salesman was always going to be eclipsed. One thing that struck me at the time was the number of mentions given to Todd's 'Ford Anglia', the car without which he could not survive. So often was the car mentioned that I am still convinced that Ford must have done a bit of sponsorship here! A great, gritty film from the days when we knew how to make them.

As I'm a Peter Sellers fan I discovered this film by chance on DVD... I was totally amazed by the story and the acting. All the cast is TOP, but I was mostly surprised by Peter Sellers -here he's not comical or funny at all, here he's a villain, a gangster. He's so good in the performance that you hate him -as a character, of course!

A salesman is victim of a theft. His car is stolen by a disbanded young who works for a car seller, a criminal who soups up engines for selling them again.

Not only Peter Sellers is excellent, the other great actor is Richard Todd. He's moving in the part of the salesman, obsessed by the search for his car and the will to show his wife (Elizabeth Sellars) he's not a loser. Adam Faith (one of the first rock singers in Britain before the Beatles and the Stones...) is the young thief.

The film has rhythm and is very realistic -for its time it's strong, fight scenes are quite violent. The film is in the wave of "Look back in anger", "Saturday night and Sunday morning". There's rage and a touch of "Free cinema", even if director John Guillermin has a more commercial style and later went to Hollywood for directing blockbusters like "The Blue Max", "The towering Inferno" and "King Kong".

A great classic, by the way.

"Never Let Go" is a British noir from 1960. It was controversial because of the language and violence, which today's viewers won't even notice.

John Cummings (Richard Todd) is a salesman for a cosmetics firm who isn't doing well. He is told he pushes too hard; that he's not like the "new" types of salesmen coming in. Obviously nervous and desperate to keep his job, John has the look and aura of a loser, and his employer knows it.

Hoping to help his work, Cummings buys a Ford Anglia from Lionel Meadows (Peter Sellers), a crook. Cummings doesn't insure the car and when it's stolen, he's in trouble. His sales kit was in it, he now can't get around, and he'll be paying for it for years with nothing to show for it.

Though he's told he needs to let it go, Cummings won't. He launches his own investigation and runs into violence and the seamier side of London.

The outstanding thing about this film is the performance of Peter Sellers as a vicious criminal, violent, vile, with no empathy. He is outstanding. It's said that people who excel in comedy can do drama, but the reverse isn't always true, and Sellers proves the point here. He's amazing and doesn't hold back, giving a full-out performance.

And he flopped. Why? His fans didn't like the change in image, and neither did the critics. He never did drama again. I am reminded of Tyrone Power's excellent performance in Nightmare Alley that so freaked out Darryl Zanuck that he gave it no publicity and withdrew it from release. In that case, though, the critics liked it, and it finally achieved a cult status. But it goes to show how strong images were back in the day and how uncomfortable people were if you tried to do something else.

This is a gritty, depressing movie about a man who needs to get his car back in order to prove to himself and his wife that he's not a loser, and that he refuses to take what fate gives him. The street thugs show him no mercy, the police aren't interested, and his marriage is in jeopardy. Cummings realizes that no matter the price, he must win -- for himself. The finale is fantastic.

Richard Todd does a wonderful job in an emotional role and shows a wide range. He was one of the many British actors who came to fame around the same time: Stewart Granger, Richard Burton, Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Harvey, Terrence Stamp, etc. Whether it was poor choices in films or what, as good an actor as he was, he never reached the full film star potential that seemed unlimited after "The Hasty Heart."

The photography is top quality noir: offbeat angles, with the use of shadows throughout. The music was that typical '50s music one hears in '50s films, loud and jazzy, the type of thing you always here as someone approaches a cheap club in a sleazy part of town.

A good film, tough and no-holds barred in the noir tradition.