West End Jungle

Bob the Moo has said it all really, and there's not much to add to his comments. Almost fifty years later, it's difficult to see what all the fuss was about - one sees worse on pre-watershed TV. All the characters are tawdry: the men are seedy and the girls unattractive. The one exception is the fan-dancer who has a few seconds towards the end of the film: she's a nice-looking girl and obviously a professional artiste.

Apart from the censorious voice-over, the striking impression was the constant smoking - one wonders what the mortality rate from cancer was among night-club hostesses and patrons.

Straight-ahead exploitation film from a director of nudie flicks (oh and exec producer of "The Sorcerers", which is actually a good movie). Hardly shocking, more comical, although still banned by the BBFC on initial release. England in the early Sixties must have been more prudish than previously thought.

There are some funny moments with a lot of non-actors "doing acting", and the spy-jazz theme tune is a swinging number (it gets replayed many times for extra value). I'd say the real interest, though, is the shots of a long-lost vintage Soho: a world away from today's tourist attraction.

Half marks, for genuine Z-grade/camp/period piece/curiosity value. Seekers of smut should, however, look elsewhere.

I used to go up to Soho and the West End from the late fifties,to watch the big epics being shown at one of the big cinemas. I have to say that I was never approached by a prostitue though there were lots of signs in doorways for models.

It is difficult to take this film too seriously at its mock serious condemnatory tone. The women who speaks on the soundtrack sounds rather like Dick Emery's Mandy.

The censor at the time was John Trevelyan. If you were what he considered a serious artist then he would give you considerable licence. If you were making exploitation films then he would come down on you like a ton of bricks.

Seamy or at least black and white expose of 1950's London's sex trade in all its guises. Using actors and clearly of the period, this reveals and condemns all the tricks of the trade, from call girls to clip joints and high massage parlours to low class walk ups. It's hard to know which are less appealing: the deluded and self-deluded and desperate punters or the calculating and equally desperate working girls. The film condemns them equally, while revealing in details the titillation and barely legal disrobing designed to arouse man's baser desires. With a voice-over straight from the Department of Public Morals, and fascinating glimpses of a period long ago, this has something for everyone. Huge potential for unintentional humour and entirely convincing as to the facts of the case.

As a time capsule it's one of the most fascinating documentaries (ever coming out of the UK). The controversial subject tackled is vice, prostitution and low-life activity in a grim post-war London. The film was banned for decades, for painting such a bleak and depressing picture but it's well worth watching, despite the terrible and out-dated narration. Choice locations filmed in the West End and Central London. even today it remains such an eye-opener for a more or less a forgotten, seedier world.