Sun 21 Jan 2018
CROSSTRAP. Screen Entertainment Company/ Unifilms, UK, 1962. Laurence Payne, Bill Nagy Jill Adams, Zena Marshall, Gary Cockerell. Screenplay by Philip Wrestler, based on the novel The Last Seven Hours by John Newton Chance. Directed by Robert Hartford-Davis.
This no-budget British suspense film has its moments and is based on a novel by popular British writer John Newton Chance (aka SF author John Lymington, among others).
Geoff and Sally (Greg Cockerll and Jill Adams) are a mystery writer and his bride off on a holiday to a remote little spot so they can have time alone and he can finish his book, but no sooner have they arrived than they find a body, and a gangster (Bill Nagy) who won’t let them go.
Soon the boss, Duke (Laurence Payne) arrives with French girlfriend Reva (Zena Marshall) and two others in tow. They’ve just pulled a jewel heist in London and killed a policeman, and meanwhile they are awaiting the plane due to land at a nearby airfield and fly them out to France.
There are complications though, like the dead man, and who killed him, and did he betray Duke and the gang? Was it a rival gang that Duke fears has followed them? Then there is Duke himself, a psycho if there ever was one, who has eyes for Sally and would like to see Geoff dead to clear the way.
None of which makes Reva happy, and since she is key to their getaway in France that matters.
Pretty soon the rival gang arrives and a siege begins, Duke tries to use Geoff as a goat to get him killed, but only succeeds in getting him captured, and as the time nears for the plane the gang can’t afford to stay penned down and must make a break for it.
It builds to a fairly exciting finish, with Duke getting his just reward from Reva and Geoff and Sally escaping by the skin of their teeth.
In a forgiving mood Crosstrap kills a bit over an hour pretty well. Payne, himself a successful mystery writer and television’s Sexton Blake, is the main attraction acting-wise and seems to be having fun as Duke. Adams and Marshall are nice to look at and neither embarrasses themselves in their performances. Nagy, you may not know by name, but will recognize if you have seen many Brit films of the period, the same for most of the rest of the cast.
Of Cockerll, let us be generous and say he is adequate.
Currently this is available on Amazon Video. I can only say I’ve spent worse hours.
January 22nd, 2018 at 10:38 am
I’m assuming tht’s not the same Bill Nagy from LOVE ACTUALLY and a recent very good film I rented called THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM which I reccomend highly.
January 22nd, 2018 at 4:16 pm
Ray
I was wondering the same thing. Then I discovered that the Bill Nagy in this film died in 1973, and the Bill Nighy who’s still around spells his name not quite the same way. I remember the latter as Davy Jones in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies — the first one? — but before that as one of the stars of STATE OF PLAY, a BBC mini-series I may have reviewed here on this blog several years ago.
January 22nd, 2018 at 4:27 pm
I was right. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1510
Posted here over 8 years ago!
January 22nd, 2018 at 3:55 pm
Good example of a plain, undemanding but watchable flick. I can’t watch brilliant movies all the time and sometimes something like this is just the thing.
January 22nd, 2018 at 4:21 pm
This movie was on the BFI’s “Most Wanted” list for a while, but with a bit of luck, the negatives were found soon thereafter.
The BFI page also states:
“At the time of its original release, the Daily Cinema said it included a ‘climactic blood-bath where corpses bite the dust as freely as Indians in a John Ford western’ and that it was an ‘incredible but lively tale of gang-warfare, packed with hearty action and intrigue, plus a spot of sex for flavour.'”
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-crosstrap-1962-online
The link will lead you to a online video of the film, but when I tried, I was advised that I had to be in the UK to see it.
January 22nd, 2018 at 10:09 pm
I also wondered if it was the same actor. Determined it wasn’t by IMDb’ing the first film I thought of Nighy in: “Shaun Of The Dead†as Shaun’s father-in-law (?). Strange that with all his roles and reputation that I always picture him first as a zombie…
(Was he Shaun’s father, father-in-law, or simply Shaun’s mother’s boyfriend?)