''Compelled'' is a 1960 British
second feature ('B')neo noir
Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...
black and white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...
crime film
Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
directed by Ramsey Herrington and starring
Ronald Howard and
Beth Rogan.
It was written by Mark Grantham and produced by the
Danziger Brothers.
Plot
Ex-con Paul Adams is an engineer blackmailed into assisting with a jewel theft. Unknown to his wife, he becomes involved in the building of a tunnel from a bookshop to a jeweller's shop.
Cast
*
Ronald Howard as Paul Adams
*
Beth Rogan as Carol
* John Gabriel as Fenton
*
Richard Shaw as Jug
*
Jack Melford
John Kenneth George Melford Smith (5 September 1899 – 22 October 1972) was a British stage, film and television actor.
Biography
Melford was the younger brother of screenwriter and film director Austin Melford. On stage from the age of 12, M ...
as Grimes
*
Mark Singleton as Derek
*
Colin Tapley as Inspector
*
Stella Bonheur as Mrs Mills
*
Wilfred Grantham as customer
*
Garard Green as reporter
*
John Stuart as book man
*
Totti Truman Taylor as lady
Production
It was one of only two films directed by Herrington, the other being ''
The Nudist Story
''The Nudist Story'' (U.S. title: ''Pussycat's Paradise;'' also known as ''Five Acres'' and ''For Members Only'') is a 1960 British second feature ('B') film directed by Ramsey Herrington and starring Shelley Martin and Brian Cobby. It was writt ...
'' (1960), also produced by the Danzigers.
Critical reception
''
The Monthly Film Bulletin
The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...
'' wrote: "Routine Danzigers crime contribution, lacking in both excitement and conviction."
Chibnall and McFarlane in ''The British 'B' Film'' called the film: "notably under-nourished in motivation and characterisation."
''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media
In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
'' wrote: "there's nothing special about this British programmer."
''Britmovie'' called the film an "unexceptional second-feature crime drama."
References
External links
*
{{The Danzigers
1960 films
1960 crime films
British crime films
British black-and-white films
Films shot at New Elstree Studios
1960s English-language films
1960s British films
English-language crime films