Panic

This is a pretty entertaining movie, proving that the Brits were capable of film noir in the 60's. It has an interesting beatnik/jazz-era vibe more associated with late 50's US films. While it leans toward melodrama, particularly the acting of the beautiful lead actress, it stays true to film noir with its very dark behaviors and outcomes and a pervasive hopelessness. High contrast B&W (or is it just a cheap Sinister Cinema print--but thanks anyway, guys, for making this available!!), jaunty camera angles and nightmarish city images keep it interesting. (Side note: thru Amazon, many obscure noir and thriller titles, probably all public domain, are available in bare bones prints by Sinister Cinema for $8.99 each, a bargain for those interested in such fare.)

I don't remember having already watched this film before, though it is in my collection. I understand why, when I see it now, there is really nothing special, despite its obvious qualities. The story is not that riveting, tense or hard boiled. Just a good time waster from a director who became famous for some adventure and horror films in the sixties and fifties. This one, I doubt anyone rememebers it in John Gilling's filmography and career. It reminds us that he was also a crime film provider, but mostly in the fifties, not the sixties. I am glad, however, to have seen it again. It remains a good film.

John Gilling wrote and directed this very nice film noir in 1963, we see a lot of nasty characters, from a sexual predator hotel owner to an impressive brute played by the famous Milton Reid, from stupid beatnicks to all kinf of crooks, all threatening the beautiful Janine Gray having lost memory in a hold up (Janine Grey is a not too well known actress, 25 titles in her filmography, and mostly tv series). Thanks for her, she meets Glyn Houston as Mike, a honest former boxer who'll do everything for her without abusing, until the desperate last shot. Kind of Hithcock. Don't miss the sexy Julie Mendez.

Everyone gets into a panic here, except one, who gets all the worst beatings, but at least he knows how to fight back. Janine Grey is a Swiss secretary at a diamond business company and beautiful as such, but unfortunately she has the wrong kind of boy friend, who decides to use her position to make a heist together with two other bandits. The heist fails completely in a blundering fiasco, as the bank manager gets shot to death by one of the villains, who now are wanted for murder, while Janine, knocked unconscious by the robbers when trying to interfere, wakes up in a state of shock with a total amnesia. Her efforts to put her mind together again is not entirely successful, but fortunately she gets a defender at an old shabby café, a former boxer, who still know how to fight. The complications pile up in a tremendous confusion for everyone involved, while gradually the police gets into the mystery to be able to sort it out. The film ends at the top of the confusion, and you can only hope that the general panic gradually will end.

Some unusual aspects to this thriller,which surfaced recently on a London tv station screening.For one the actors at the bottom of the cast are better known than the two leads.John Gilling uses unusual camera angles in imitation of Carol Reed.Reasonable story though there are some implausible aspects.