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Hell Is a City

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Hell Is a City is a 1960 British crime thriller film directed by Val Guest and starring Stanley Baker, John Crawford and Donald Pleasence. It was written by Guest based on the 1954 novel of the same title by Maurice Procter,[1] and made by British studio Hammer Film Productions on location in Manchester. It was partly inspired by the British New Wave films and resembles American film noir.[2]

Hell Is a City
Directed byVal Guest
Screenplay byVal Guest
Based onHell Is a City
by Maurice Procter
Produced byMichael Carreras
StarringStanley Baker
John Crawford
Donald Pleasence
CinematographyArthur Grant
Edited byJohn Dunsford
James Needs
Music byStanley Black
Color processBlack and white
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner-Pathé Distributors
Release dates
  • 10 April 1960 (1960-04-10) (Manchester Premiere)
  • 1 May 1960 (1960-05-01) (UK)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£115,000

Plot

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Committed but seen-it-all police inspector Harry Martineau rightly guesses that after a violent jailbreak a local criminal will head home to Manchester to pick up the spoils from his last job. Martineau is soon investigating a murder during a street robbery which seems to lead back to the same villain. Concentrating on the case and using his local contacts to try to track the gang down, he is aware he is not keeping his own personal life together as well as he might.

Cast

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Production

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In a 1988 interview, Val Guest said: "Mike Carreras fell for the book, he liked it very much and gave to me to read, then he bought the rights from ABP [Associated British Picture Corporation] ‘cos they were never going to make it, and we made it on location, and the whole thing was this Detective Inspecor Martineau … and this very human detective, tough, rough, but human with his own problems at home, with a wife who nagged, falling for a barmaid who was part of his investigation, it was a real slice of life, putting the police down as human beings."[3]

Critical reception

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In contemporary reviews,Variety said "Val Guest’s taut screenplay, allied to his own deft direction, has resulted in a notable film in which the characters are all vividly alive, the action constantly gripping and the background of a provincial city put over with authenticity."[4]

Kine Weekly wrote: "The tale is fiction, but its types, expertly portrayed by a hand-picked cast – Stanley Baker adds another commanding portrait to his already long and impressive gallery as the hero – thoroughly convince, while apt asides, embracing sentiment and sex, subtly punctuate the rough stuff.  ... The picture sharply cross-sections north country life and effectively employs warm sentiment and shrewd comedy touches to underline violent action, culminating in the villain's spectacular apprehension.."[5]

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Any British crime picture that forswears the sleazy bars and pseudo-luxury flats of London and the sinister country houses of the Home Counties deserves some welcome, even if the road to the industrial North is by now well and diversely pioneered. This film may not re-create the atmosphere of Manchester any more effectively than Violent Playground (1958) did that of Liverpool, but in the coin-tossing game on the dingy moor outside a little factory town it has a most striking outdoor sequence, thanks in great measure to Arthur Grant's stark photography and the choice of extras who really look their parts. ... Elsewhere, Val Guest's script and direction maintain a hectic pace, with frequent scene changes, mobility of camera and performers, and much rapid, loud, intense dialogue, all making most recent American gangster films seem weakly constructed and slow-moving. There is a perpetual feeling of barely suppressed savagery, submerged in the excitement and rush of the early scenes, but undisguised later with a near-rape and the hunting and shooting of the deaf-mute blonde, Silver – almost the only character who is neither depraved nor at least coarsened."[6]

Writing in The Guardian, Philip French said: "Guest's dialogue is abrasive and unsentimental, the editing (to a modern jazz score) rapid without being self-consciously smart, the accents mostly convincing."[7]

Leslie Halliwell called the film: "Lively semi-documentary, cameo-filled cop thriller filmed on location."[8]

In British Sound Films David Quinlan writes: "With its tough approach and patchwork of small scenes, this exciting thriller was the forerunner of much British TV cops-and-robbers to follow."[9]

Empire said: "[Baker and Pleasance] turn in fierce performances and Guest's direction gives the movie a splendidly wrought realism, capturing a nasty underworld Britain rarely envisioned since."[10]

Time Out said: "A persuasively sweaty crime thriller set in Manchester ... The atmosphere is persuasively seedy and downbeat, and there's a striking performance by Billie Whitelaw".[11]

The Manchester Evening News said " With its panoply of bantering barmaids, silver-tongued felons and lush wives, a clipped camera style and hard-boiled sensibilities (which seem a little bit Z-Cars now), Hell Is A City is probably a film which deserves to have featured more prominently in British movie memory."[12]

References

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  1. ^ "Hell is a City". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  2. ^ Burton, Alan; Chibnall, Steve (11 July 2013). Historical Dictionary of British Cinema - Alan Burton, Steve Chibnall - Google Books. ISBN 9780810880269. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  3. ^ Fowler, Roy (1988). "Interview with Val Guest". British Entertainment History Project.
  4. ^ "Hell Is a City". Variety. 31 December 1959. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  5. ^ "Hell is a City". Kine Weekly. 514 (2737): 32. 27 July 1950.
  6. ^ "Hell Is a City". Monthly Film Bulletin. 27 (312): 64. 1 January 1950.
  7. ^ French, Philip (18 November 2012). "Hell is a City". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  8. ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 456. ISBN 0-586-08894-6.
  9. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 347. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
  10. ^ Thomas, William (1 January 2000). "Hell Is a City Review". Empire. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Hell Is a City". Time Out. 10 September 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  12. ^ Moran, Danny (22 January 2013). "Hell Is a City". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
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