It's difficult to disagree with the reviews that other users have already posted for this title. This is a crime drama that plods along without being very dramatic and, although Maureen Connell is an attractive and engaging lead, the characters are all very bland and one-dimensional. The title number is reasonable enough but otherwise the musical score is very weak.
Things start out with some promise - the opening scene depicts a high street robbery on a security van (the crew of which don't seem remotely security conscious) which ends with one of the crooks being caught, and then cuts to his subsequent release from prison two years later and tracking down his former associates. But this has rather little to do with the main plot which concerns the murder of a policeman who was working undercover spying on a diamond smuggling ring. Connell plays the dead policeman's devoted sister, Lynne Marsden, who is determined to avenge his death by finding out who the killer was and bringing him to justice. The police, headed by pipe-smoking Detective Inspector Willoughby (Anthony Oliver), are not only aware of Marsden's foolhardy plan, they actively encourage it, which is just one aspect of the plot that stretches credulity. It all centres around a nightclub where women sing on stage and perform strip-teases to the polite applause of elderly gentlemen. The manager, Sam Warren (Bill Nagy) is smitten with Marsden and offers her a job there, which she accepts before even bothering to check whether or not it will involve disrobing before a live audience or scrubbing out the men's toilets at the end of each evening. In fact, we don't even find out exactly what the work does consist of - a trivial detail, since this is just a clumsy plot device to integrate Marsden with the criminal ring, whose leader is Nicky Venning (Alan Tilvern, not the most convincing of evil masterminds), the owner of said nightclub.
The plot then proceeds with Marsden dividing her time between Sam, Nicky and Willoughby, before the inevitable happens and her true motives are discovered. The few moments of real drama (such as the arranged murder of one of the nightclub acts, or Marsden getting captured and tied up) are merely reported as having happened rather than actually seen and the apprehension of the criminals at the climax is very straightforward and lacks any real punch or suspense.
The plot itself doesn't hold up to close scrutiny - if the police already knew enough about Venning's activities to place a spy in his warehouse, then why are they subsequently so clueless about him? If Venning doesn't want to attract the attention of the police, is bumping off one of the performers affiliated to his own nightclub the best way to achieve this? Why don't any police officers come to the club to ask questions? If Venning's game is smuggling diamonds, then what was that high street robbery at the beginning of the film all about? Worst of all, Lynne Marsden's blossoming romance with Sam Warren just seems to get dropped (as does Warren's character) although the closing line of the film suggests it is still on the cards.
In summation, this film is little more than a piece of escapist fluff. It ticks along without ever getting dull but it lacks drama, tension, twists and depth. Some cheap British crime thrillers from this era are absolute gems, but this isn't close to being one of them.
Things start out with some promise - the opening scene depicts a high street robbery on a security van (the crew of which don't seem remotely security conscious) which ends with one of the crooks being caught, and then cuts to his subsequent release from prison two years later and tracking down his former associates. But this has rather little to do with the main plot which concerns the murder of a policeman who was working undercover spying on a diamond smuggling ring. Connell plays the dead policeman's devoted sister, Lynne Marsden, who is determined to avenge his death by finding out who the killer was and bringing him to justice. The police, headed by pipe-smoking Detective Inspector Willoughby (Anthony Oliver), are not only aware of Marsden's foolhardy plan, they actively encourage it, which is just one aspect of the plot that stretches credulity. It all centres around a nightclub where women sing on stage and perform strip-teases to the polite applause of elderly gentlemen. The manager, Sam Warren (Bill Nagy) is smitten with Marsden and offers her a job there, which she accepts before even bothering to check whether or not it will involve disrobing before a live audience or scrubbing out the men's toilets at the end of each evening. In fact, we don't even find out exactly what the work does consist of - a trivial detail, since this is just a clumsy plot device to integrate Marsden with the criminal ring, whose leader is Nicky Venning (Alan Tilvern, not the most convincing of evil masterminds), the owner of said nightclub.
The plot then proceeds with Marsden dividing her time between Sam, Nicky and Willoughby, before the inevitable happens and her true motives are discovered. The few moments of real drama (such as the arranged murder of one of the nightclub acts, or Marsden getting captured and tied up) are merely reported as having happened rather than actually seen and the apprehension of the criminals at the climax is very straightforward and lacks any real punch or suspense.
The plot itself doesn't hold up to close scrutiny - if the police already knew enough about Venning's activities to place a spy in his warehouse, then why are they subsequently so clueless about him? If Venning doesn't want to attract the attention of the police, is bumping off one of the performers affiliated to his own nightclub the best way to achieve this? Why don't any police officers come to the club to ask questions? If Venning's game is smuggling diamonds, then what was that high street robbery at the beginning of the film all about? Worst of all, Lynne Marsden's blossoming romance with Sam Warren just seems to get dropped (as does Warren's character) although the closing line of the film suggests it is still on the cards.
In summation, this film is little more than a piece of escapist fluff. It ticks along without ever getting dull but it lacks drama, tension, twists and depth. Some cheap British crime thrillers from this era are absolute gems, but this isn't close to being one of them.