Ted is a taxi driver whose girl Joy becomes a taxi dancer, soon both are doing the foxtrot with felons! This British noir is well directed by John Paddy Carstairs from a competent script, but it’s the cinematography by Reginald Wyer that gives this film a dark edge. His use of long tracking crane shots, often rising two stories through a crowded dance hall to his use of low-key lighting and low menacing angles create a palpable sense of urgency and frisson. The acting is wonderful especially the action hero protagonist, Richard Attenborough!
Ted (Richard Attenborough) drives a taxi to make ends meet, while his best friend Dave (Bill Owen) subsists by the black market, pockets full of cash and soon a spine full of lead. Ted and his fiancé Joy (Sheila Sim) cooperate with the constabulary but do some amateur sleuthing on their own. This puts them directly in the bullseye of a gang of racketeers who look more like accountants...but carry a heavier ledger! The suspense is ratcheted up progressively as the story unfolds while our ingenue and her baby-faced beau court more danger than they can imagine. Ted may be slight of build but packs a mean punch! We get some well-choreographed fight sequences composed in medium shot, with the agile Richard Attenborough scrambling in mortal hand to hand combat. The police are portrayed as efficient and by the book, unlike many American film noirs where it’s difficult to discern the Rule of Law from Title 18! Even the gangsters are mannered and sophisticated, though they aren’t above sending a cohort to the farm. Permanently. It’s also a reprieve to see minimal displays of gunplay since Britain isn’t plagued by a Second Amendment, so there is no police shootout as a denouement. The few handguns that are wielded are only in the hands of the criminals. Ted and Joy may live happily ever after, if he sticks to driving taxis.
Final Grade: (B)
