Tonight's Movie: The Frightened City (1961) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

THE FRIGHTENED CITY (1961) was my second film to watch from the Kino Lorber Brit Noir Collection I, following CAGE OF GOLD (1950).

THE FRIGHTENED CITY stars Herbert Lom and Sean Connery in a tale of the London crime underworld.

Lom and Alfred Marks play Waldo and Harry, mobsters who come up with the idea to unite with several other gangs to form one unified entity collecting protection money from businesses all over town.  All the gang heads will split the profits, minus ten percent going to Waldo off the top.

Former burglar Paddy Damion (Connery), in need of work due to having recently lost his longtime partner in crime (Kenneth Griffiths) to a crippling injury, is brought on as the consortium's "insurance" collector and enforcer.

Paddy also has a busy love life, sneaking around on loyal girlfriend Sadie (Olive McFarland) with Anya (Yvonne Romain); Anya, for her part, is also the mistress of Waldo and might be doing a little spying on Paddy.

When Waldo decides to move into big-time extortion of construction companies, one of the racketeers, Alf (David Davies), believes it's a disaster in the making and wants to quit the group. Paddy is asked to bring Alf in for a "business" discussion, assured that's all that's going to take place, but things don't go as Paddy expects...

I found THE FRIGHTENED CITY a reasonably entertaining 97 minutes. The main thing that stands out, of course, is Connery, in one of several roles he played the year before his first 007 appearance in DR. NO (1962).

Connery is handsome and charismatic, though his character is a bit of a jerk when it comes to how he treats the women in his life. Lom is always dependable in this type of role, as a greedy man who thinks nothing of causing business owners to suffer so that he can accumulate wealth.

The rest of the film is a straightforward mob story, nothing of particular excellence but certainly not a bad film, either. It's a rough, tough story demonstrating that ultimately, crime doesn't pay. If you like gritty films set in London -- and I do -- this will fill the bill. Having the chance to see it in a sharp-looking 4K restoration adds to the enjoyment.

The movie was directed by John Lemont and filmed in black and white by Desmond Dickinson. It was written by director Lemont, along with Leigh Vance, from Lemont's story.

Disc extras include a commentary track by C. Courtney Joyner and Bruce Scivally, plus a gallery of three trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection.

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