malcolmgsw This is the sort of film that would turn up on the bottom half of a double bill at your local ABC cinema in the 1960s.It is all fairly routine.However it is rather spoiled by plot contrivances.Firstly there is the coincidence that Jacquleine Ellis's ex husband just happens to be a criminal who is banged up in prison.Then the fact that he can not only identify the gang member but can provide his address.Then like all true B movie heroines,instead of informing the police,she goes straight over to Carter's house,peeks in the window sees him,thinks she has made her getaway and is promptly caught by a gang member.Then Booths partner who has given inside information to the gang is caught and spills the beans,and hey presto the gang is caught on the job.Quite a pleasant way to spend an hour.

jamesraeburn2003 A young lorry driver called Terry McKinley (Anthony Booth) picks up a young runaway called Shirley (Jacqueline Ellis) en route to London with a consignment of whiskey worth £20,000. As they make their way down a quiet country b road, they are set upon by a gang of hijackers lead by Jack Carter (Derek Francis) who make off with the lorry and its valuable goods. Shirley who managed to escape is able to get a good look at Carter and is able to give a description to Inspector Grayson (Patrick Cargill). Terry invites Shirley to stay with him at his London flat and we learn that his business partner, Jim Brady (Ronald Hines), is working for Carter's gang. He tipped them off as to what valuable goods he was carrying and the route he was taking. Unfortunately, Brady learns that Shirley is able to identify his boss and later that night, Terry and Shirley receive a visit from a couple of Carter's thugs who deliver a sinister warning. By now, Terry strongly suspects his old friend Brady and drags him off to the police where he is forced to tell them of the gang's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Shirley visits her ex husband, Tim, who is doing time at Wormwood Scrubs. She threatens to tell the police about other crimes he was connected with, which could put him behind bars for longer unless she tells him where the gang are hiding out. She goes to Carter's house in Hampstead but she is overpowered by the gang. But fortunately, Brady has cracked and informs Terry and Inspector Grayson that the gang are pulling off another job, a lorry carrying £30,000 worth of cosmetics. As it happens the lorry is being driven by one of Terry's mates, a guy known as Scouse (Harold Goodwin). Terry and the police trace the gang to an abandoned farm but not until after they have hijacked the truck but in time to save the goods and rescue Shirley...A routine b-pic thriller from Butcher's, Britain's poverty row studio who churned out numerous pot boilers such as this. Anybody who has seen a great number of them will probably agree that many were pretty awful. This one is utterly routine in terms of its plot but it is kept watchable thanks to brisk paced direction by Jim O' Connolly here working from his own screenplay who even throws in a few effective directorial touches, which you would not expect from such a routine production. Derek Francis is good as the gang leader, Jack Carter, who as well as planning ingenious hijacking methods also has a passion for cookery. "I find it creative rather like art or sculpture" he tells one of his accomplices. "I took it up when I was in Parkhurst and I ended up cooking for the prison governor and I think he was sorry when I left". Anthony Booth enjoys himself in the lead as Terry and he goes through his role cheerfully. He clearly enjoys the opportunity to do the odd fight scene and jump through a window (without the glass I might add) and knock a couple of hoodlums for six. Jacqueline Ellis is very competent as Shirley but the love angle is very blandly worked out and you cannot really imagine her character falling for Terry. There is an amusing little scene where Scouse approaches a road block, which he assumes to be the hijackers so he drives straight through it so pleased with himself that he narrowly avoids a deadly collision with a tree. He is surprised when he learns that it was a genuine road block. But later he approaches another one and assumes this one to be genuine as well so he stops and - you've guessed it - this time it is the hijackers!

naseby Couldn't agree more, with Daniel. This seemed to wane, as you said only when the obligatory love interest came in (which thankfully, there wasn't a lot of). An independent lorry driver (a young Tony 'scouse git' Booth)finds he has been set-up by his co-partner in the business for a hi-jacking. The love interest Jacqueline Ellis, someone he picked up on her way to London, in his lorry, becomes also involved in cracking the gang that too hijacked Booth's lorry and are onto countless others. Watch carefully, when Booth goes to confront his chum, of an old location of 'Lion Wharf' Isleworth in Middlesex, close to Twickenham studios where the studio work was done. Some good character actors, Harold Goodwin, Glynn Edwards and Patrick Cargill as a sarky article cop make it watchable.However, a basic but good plot, fine acting especially from Tony Blair's son-in-law. Fairly recently released with Reknown Pictures

DanielKing Strictly run-of-the-mill British crime yarn which exerts its own modest charm. Booth is actually quite charismatic and gets across the world weary nature of the long distance lorry driver. We get intriguing glimpses of the lay-bys and cafes these men exist in but it is never really dealt with is any depth. The same is true of the underworld; there are indications that operations are run by an intelligent middle class men who employ no hope working class men to carry things out. The gang includes one black member whose race is never mentioned. We get a sequence where the girl visits her ex-husband in jail and asks him for information, which he provides, perhaps showing there is no honour among thieves, although the gang seem pretty loyal to their boss. There are hints of a network of criminals and indications that crime among the haulage industry is rife. The film makes good use of its locations and the film only begins to sag when the narrative shifts to Booth's flat where the obligatory love interest takes place.