The Frightened City (1961)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1961
Running Time	93:54
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John Lemont
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Herbert Lom John Gregson Sean Connery Alfred Marks Yvonne Romain Olive McFarland Frederick Piper John Stone David Davies Tom Bowman Robert Cawdron George Pastell Patrick Holt
Case	?
RPI	$9.95	Music	Norrie Paramor

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This is a minor British crime thriller from the early 1960s, nominally starring Herbert Lom and featuring an early larger role for Sean Connery. Lom plays Waldo, who seems to be a financier-businessman of some description who also handles affairs for Harry (Alfred Marks). Waldo proposes that Harry get all of the London crime bosses working together rather than fighting over territory, with Waldo getting a cut for providing the overall strategy. Harry talks cat burglar Paddy (Connery) into working for him as a suave standover merchant, which he feels he must do in order to support Wally (Kenneth Griffith, incorrectly credited as Kenneth Griffiths), who is crippled after falling during a job.

    Meanwhile, Paddy gets involved with French-Algerian singer Anya (Yvonne Romain), who works at Harry's club, to the chagrin of his more staid girlfriend Sadie, who sings at the same club. An attempt by Waldo and Harry to move into more lucrative territory starts a gang war, and Scotland Yard, represented by John Gregson and Frederick Piper, gets involved.

    This is a small crime thriller, obviously an attempt to provide the gritty thrills of American genre films. Being a British film, it is all a little too polite and the criminals and police a little too deferential towards each other to be convincing. Even so, it is diverting and would be of interest to fans of Sean Connery and to fans of On the Buses, with Stephen Lewis (billed as Stephen Cato) playing a small role as a grenade-throwing thug.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. I have not been able to ascertain whether this is the original aspect ratio, but it does not appear to have been cropped or matted.

    The transfer is nice and sharp with a good level of detail visible. This is a black and white film and the range of shades of grey is good, with solid blacks and pure whites. Shadow detail is good.

    Apart from a couple of instances of aliasing, so minor that they are barely worth mentioning, there are no film to video artefacts present. Grain is kept to reasonable levels, apart from in a couple of stock shots.

    Film artefacts are also almost non-existent, with some occasional spots and marks. The most noticeable problem was with some vertical white scratches, such as the two visible for a few seconds from 51:58.

    There are no subtitles on this single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio track is English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

    The audio is reasonably good. Dialogue is clear and although there is some sibilance and minor distortion, there really is not much to distract the viewer from the film.

    The strange music score is by Norrie Paramor, and includes some jazz motifs, with brass and drums prominent. The music over the end credits sounded like it was from some spaghetti western from later in the decade.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Disappointingly, no audio commentary from Sean Connery and Herbert Lom. No extras at all, in fact.

    The US Region 1 release from Anchor Bay has a trailer and a poster and still gallery, not sufficient in my opinion to sway the potential purchaser, as the transfer seems to be identical.

    A minor but diverting film, this gets a much better transfer than many much better films.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is satisfactory.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall