The Criminal (1960, aka The Concrete Jungle) 16th September 2019

[Aclea]

This hasn't got much attention or interest - well, virtually any attention, really - but this is one of the must-have releases of the year for me:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-C...lu-ray/249324/

Synopsis: Ex-con Johnny (Stanley Baker) used his time in prison wisely – to plan the biggest robbery of his career. The robbery goes smoothly and Johnny goes to bury the money in a field until the heat is off, as agreed with friend and racketeer Mike Carter (Sam Wanamaker) and the rest of the gang.

In a moment of weakness, Johnny pockets five hundred odd pounds from the haul. Coupled with a tip-off from his ex-girlfriend (Jill Bennett) this proves to be his undoing and Johnny is soon back in prison. The rest of the gang try in vain to get the location of the money out of him without success until Mike hits upon the idea of a break-out using Johnny's new love Suzanne (Margit Saad) as bait.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

NEWLY REMASTERED
Audio Commentary with film historian Kat Ellinger
Stills gallery
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

The Criminal/The Concrete Jungle is, for my money at least, one of Joseph Losey’s two best films (the other being King and Country), but it never really garnered the kind of success or reputation it deserved, possibly because it had the misfortune to open on the same day as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which completely overshadowed it. Billed as ‘the toughest film ever made in Britain,’ even 59 years on it’s still truly vicious stuff. Indeed, in the entire cast of characters that populate Alun Owen’s excellent and unsentimental screenplay – irredeemable crooks, vicious prison warders, prison governors who don’t really want to know, amoral molls and assorted perverts and thugs – the only two people in the entire film who aren’t totally corrupt are Laurence Naismith’s arresting officer (who is still not above letting on about his informants) and the piano tuner who appears in one brief scene. The plot is a simple enough variation on Touchez Pas au Grisbi, with Stanley Baker’s con pulling off a big job and immediately being ratted out by one of his partners who wants a bigger share, but the stark execution and background is what carries it. Certainly its vision of the British prison system as a Hellish melting pot of refuse of all persuasions - Irish, Australian, Italians, West Indians, the mentally disturbed – where the guards don’t just turn a blind eye to vicious beatings but even facilitate them is a kick in the groin to the more sedate cop movies of the day.

It’s also full of memorable little moments, from the prison weasel spreading the news of an informant’s return inbetween lines of Knick Knack Paddywhack to Kenneth J. Warren’s inability to say anything without incorporating the word ‘loike.’ Robert Krasker’s black and white cinematography has more bite to it than most of its contemporaries, from the hard stark edges of the prison scenes to the bleak half-snowscape of the haunting final shots (even pulling off a striking moment of stylised lighting as the script gets inside one lowlife's head), while Johnny Dankworth’s score makes great use of Cleo Laine’s mournful prison balled (“All my loving, all my joy/Came from loving a thieving boy”). The supporting cast is impressive, offering a virtual who’s who of perfectly cast 60s British character actors*, including many faces that would later memorably turn up among the ranks in Baker’s Zulu). Unlike the wave of British gangster flicks that littered the straight-to-video shelves post-Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, this feels like the real thing rather than a bunch of nicely brought up middle class kids playing dress-up.

For some curious reason Anchor Bay’s otherwise excellent DVD transfer omitted the end credits, played over a melancholy shot of prisoners walking in circles in a stark and wintery exercise yard. Hopefully StudioCanal will restore that. Shame the SC disc is so light on extras (the Anchor Bay release included the UK trailer).

* How's this for a supporting cast of familiar faces - Sam Wanamaker, Grégoire Aslan, Jill Bennett, Rupert Davies, Laurence Naismith, John Van Eyssen, Derek Francis, Patrick Magee, Kenneth Cope, Patrick Wymark, Kenneth J. Warren, Noel Willman, Paul Stassino, Tom Bell, Neil McCarthy, Nigel Green, Murray Melvin, Edward Judd, Roy Dotrice, Sydney Bromley

[Si Parallel Universe]

Stanley Baker certainly has my interest. Sounds like my cuppa. Thanks for the alert.

[Modman]

I see that the review for The Criminal is up https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-C...249324/#Review, whilst I might agree this isn't top draw Losey the movie is far better then the reviewer would have you believe.

[Aclea]

Well, as I said in the Kino thread about his drive-by review of ffolkes/North Sea Hijack, for me Svet's reviews are a perfect reverse barometer, so that translates into a rave review.

[Modman]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Well, as I said in the Kino thread about his drive-by review of ffolkes/North Sea Hijack, for me Svet's reviews are a perfect reverse barometer, so that translates into a rave review.

Apparently you aren't "most viewers" as they will agree with him!

PS North Sea Hijack is tosh but nevertheless great fun.

[Aclea]

In this case the ffolkes review got a noticeably negative reaction as being wildly OTT on the US board.

[Si Parallel Universe]

I'd watch Stanley Baker reading from a telephone directory

[Aclea]

Down to a very reasonable for SC ￡10.99 at Amazon.

[Aclea]

Forgot to mention - the original end credits scene has been restored, but contrary to Svet's review the disc does not contain the trailer, just the commentary and very brief (24 seconds) stills gallery.

[amputd]

So is the reviewer’s far right political views the reason for the poor review, or is this a bad film? He goes out of his way to mention Losey and Baker’s political views, so I’m suspicious.

[KJones77]

Originally Posted by amputd

So is the reviewer’s far right political views the reason for the poor review, or is this a bad film? He goes out of his way to mention Losey and Baker’s political views, so I’m suspicious.

This is a great film. Love Losey and Baker is phenomenal in the film.

Your suspicions are right.

[Modman]

Originally Posted by amputd

So is the reviewer’s far right political views the reason for the poor review, or is this a bad film? He goes out of his way to mention Losey and Baker’s political views, so I’m suspicious.

I have no idea what the reviewers politics are and I don't believe it has any relevance to the quality of the review it is simply a poor review once it strays from considering technical merits.

[Aclea]

I'd hardly call it a political film: the blacklisted Losey may have identified with Baker's character being ratted out by his colleagues, but he is hardly an admirable figure himself - indeed the assorted lowlives are the kind of irredeemably negative depictions you'd expect the right wing press and critics to approve of.

But as I noted above, like others here I regard his reviews as a perfect reverse barometer, and when he's not getting details wrong (listing a non-existent extra here, the infamous Thieves Highway edit vs print damage saga, etc) or demanding labels run their business his way until they stop providing review copies here (TT) or get out of the business altogether (Kino in his review of City of Industry), constantly referring to Harry Alan Towers as 'the great producer' (I worked for the man, and if he ever heard that he'd think there must be another producer with the same name) or coming up with surreal theses like 1944 romcom Brazil being a practically identical concept to Casablanca (you know, that film full of people living up to their full potential in an exotic place that brings out the best in them where Bogart plays the unpopular author of Why Marry a Casablancan? who falls for a local singer who masquerades as her twin sibling) don't exactly inspire confidence in his critical faculties. But every publication has to have its resident contrary curmudgeon, and he's this site's.

And yeah, great film.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by Aclea

[Show spoiler]The Criminal/The Concrete Jungle is, for my money at least, one of Joseph Losey’s two best films (the other being King and Country), but it never really garnered the kind of success or reputation it deserved, possibly because it had the misfortune to open on the same day as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which completely overshadowed it. Billed as ‘the toughest film ever made in Britain,’ even 59 years on it’s still truly vicious stuff. Indeed, in the entire cast of characters that populate Alun Owen’s excellent and unsentimental screenplay – irredeemable crooks, vicious prison warders, prison governors who don’t really want to know, amoral molls and assorted perverts and thugs – the only two people in the entire film who aren’t totally corrupt are Laurence Naismith’s arresting officer (who is still not above letting on about his informants) and the piano tuner who appears in one brief scene. The plot is a simple enough variation on Touchez Pas au Grisbi, with Stanley Baker’s con pulling off a big job and immediately being ratted out by one of his partners who wants a bigger share, but the stark execution and background is what carries it. Certainly its vision of the British prison system as a Hellish melting pot of refuse of all persuasions - Irish, Australian, Italians, West Indians, the mentally disturbed – where the guards don’t just turn a blind eye to vicious beatings but even facilitate them is a kick in the groin to the more sedate cop movies of the day.

It’s also full of memorable little moments, from the prison weasel spreading the news of an informant’s return inbetween lines of Knick Knack Paddywhack to Kenneth J. Warren’s inability to say anything without incorporating the word ‘loike.’ Robert Krasker’s black and white cinematography has more bite to it than most of its contemporaries, from the hard stark edges of the prison scenes to the bleak half-snowscape of the haunting final shots (even pulling off a striking moment of stylised lighting as the script gets inside one lowlife's head), while Johnny Dankworth’s score makes great use of Cleo Laine’s mournful prison balled (“All my loving, all my joy/Came from loving a thieving boy”). The supporting cast is impressive, offering a virtual who’s who of perfectly cast 60s British character actors*, including many faces that would later memorably turn up among the ranks in Baker’s Zulu). Unlike the wave of British gangster flicks that littered the straight-to-video shelves post-Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, this feels like the real thing rather than a bunch of nicely brought up middle class kids playing dress-up.

For some curious reason Anchor Bay’s otherwise excellent DVD transfer omitted the end credits, played over a melancholy shot of prisoners walking in circles in a stark and wintery exercise yard. Hopefully StudioCanal will restore that. Shame the SC disc is so light on extras (the Anchor Bay release included the UK trailer).

* How's this for a supporting cast of familiar faces - Sam Wanamaker, Grégoire Aslan, Jill Bennett, Rupert Davies, Laurence Naismith, John Van Eyssen, Derek Francis, Patrick Magee, Kenneth Cope, Patrick Wymark, Kenneth J. Warren, Noel Willman, Paul Stassino, Tom Bell, Neil McCarthy, Nigel Green, Murray Melvin, Edward Judd, Roy Dotrice, Sydney Bromley

Always enjoy your take on a film, and usually find myself in broad agreement. Watched my blind-buy Kino release a couple of nights back, and it's the same with this film: A fantastic cast; strong lead performance by Baker; Krasker's cinematography; great score and theme song; and of course the unsentimental and unflinching portrayal of some of the realities of prison life.

However, there were a couple of things that I found a little jarring:

Firstly, the odd obsession with accents, with almost every principal role seemingly needing one - either regional or national (a number of which were rather unconvincing, and clearly not native to the actor), or alternatively, some strange affectation, as evidenced by the quite peculiar intonation of the Chief Warder, which at times was borderline comical.

Secondly, the unrelenting "toughness" of it all pushed certain scenes to the brink of melodrama. Ironically, a little more vulnerability between key characters might have brought the machismo and violence into sharper focus.

I also found it rather amusing that

[Show spoiler]the "Fast black car" chosen for the breakout was a huge pre-WWII Bentley more suited to chauffeuring around the well-heeled than spiriting a criminal to safety

.

All in all, an enjoyable watch with solid replay value, despite the noted minor misgivings.