Review: The Frightened City

Herbert Lom plays an account turned mobster/racketeer who has a plan to get all of the heads of London’s various gangs to work together in forming a crime syndicate. John Gregson is the top copper hoping to bring the syndicate down. Sean Connery plays Irish low-level crim Paddy, who works as a thug for racketeer Alfred Marks. Yvonne Romain plays Lom’s wife, whom Paddy (himself married) puts the moves on. Kenneth Griffith (wasted) turns up briefly as Paddy’s criminal partner who was severely injured in a previous robbery.

 

Dated 1961 crime pic from director John Lemont (“Konga”, a giant ape movie with Michael Gough) has Herbert Lom top-billed, but it’s actually the far less interesting John Gregson in the lead. Playing a determined cop, he’s boring. Lom is professional as usual, but quite underused. If you’re going to see the film, the reason will be to watch a pre-Bond Sean Connery as an Irish criminal. Despite playing a crook, you can see how the 007 producers landed on him for the part of Bond. Already showing himself to be a man of action, Connery gives a very assured, very masculine, very physical performance but also shows he can play a smooth cad in that same performance. Villain role or not, I think that description sounds quite a lot like Bond. Hell, he’s introduced doing judo for crying out loud.

 

Outside of Connery, the story isn’t particularly special and the cops are boring as hell. Lom is good as always, but like I said, he’s just not in the film enough after the first act to really matter. The actors playing the cops think they’re in an episode of “Dragnet”, the actors playing the crooks are in something a little more substantial. The two combine for an uneven, but occasionally interesting film. Connery is the standout. “The Asphalt Jungle” it’s not. The clichéd screenplay is by Leigh Vance (“Dr. Crippen”, “The Black Windmill”), from a story by Vance and Lemont.

 

Rating: C+

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