The Frightened City

A year before Dr No, Sean Connery stars as Paddy Damion, a small-time (and retired) cat burglar who, somewhat against his will, gets dragged into a protection racket run by Waldo Zhernikov (Herbert Lom). Unwilling at first, Damion is convinced of the value of the work when he finds himself supporting his partner in crime, Wally (Kenneth Griffith), when he is injured during a robbery. Zhernikov's particular genius is to convince the gangsters running protection deals in London to divide the city up between them and to work together, even to contributing to a monthly kitty for legal expenses. These six gangs do very well but Zhernikov is far too ambitious to settle for the pennies that come from nightclubs, dry cleaners and coffee shops.

Calling on his friend Harry Foulcher (Alfred Marks) to aid his organisation of his most ambitious racket yet, Zhernikov plans to hit building contracts in the wealthy City of London. One member of the Syndicate wants out, saying that this turn of events is too big for him. He is reminded, both verbally and physically, that no one can quit the syndicate. But Damion, in spite of what he does to make a living, has a conscience and is no longer convinced of his part in the syndicate. Meanwhile, DI Sayers (John Gregson) slowly builds the case against Zhernikov but he must work fast as the disagreement between the gangsters goes to the streets in violent fashion.

Even at this early stage in his career, Sean Connery plays Irish with a strong Scottish accent but carries himself well. He is, of course, not quite as well groomed as he would be in the Caribbean a year later but such style, or a lack of it, is more befitting to a gangland heavy who likes to make his clients, in his own words, sweat. He is, though, the star even here. Granted his stature has much to do with how much of a presence he has in the film but he carries himself with ease throughout, showing sufficient muscle to portray a heavy while moving so gently and with such care as to make his romance with Anya (Yvonne Romain) believable. Not quite so gently as to make his shimmying up a drainpipe convincing but it's one aberration in an otherwise fine performance.

Connery is a very welcome presence in The Frightened City as, in a good many other respects, it's quite an ordinary film. As the heavy, Connery enforces Herbert Lom's syndicate but it doesn't take very much foresight to see that they will turn on him in the end. So it proves but the enjoyment in the film comes with these oh-so-predictable turns. The one real disappointment is that the actions of the syndicate are hidden from view such that the audience hears much about the violence but sees very little of it. The one shooting in the film is nothing that would have troubled the cop shows of the seventies while even the final fight between Damion and Foulcher is, in spite of the loaded Luger and a swinging mace, something of a letdown. By then, though, the criminal goings-on in The Frightened City have taken a back seat to the police investigation, which isn't quite so interesting and nor does it really push either Connery or Lom. There are moments of cynicism but it draws to a hopelessly naïve conclusion, in which DI Sayers gets to make his I-don't-want-my-children-growing-up-in-a-London-run-by-gangsters speech. Perhaps, but let's hope he didn't live long enough to see them stealing his pension book for their STD prescriptions, knock-off mobiles and alcopops.

Anamorphically presented in 1.74:1, The Frightened City is the best looking of the three Optimum releases reviewed today. There's plenty of grain in the picture but it's not unwelcome. Similarly, there's a small amount of print damage but being a knocking of the picture between cuts, they're more the fault of the original edit rather than being due to how The Frightened City has fared over the years or how Optimum have transferred it onto DVD. As it is, they've done a pretty good job of it. The picture is reasonably sharp, is bright and offers a fair amount of detail. On the other hand, there is a slight amount of wavering to the contrast in the top left of the picture but this tends to come and go. However, having watched The Frightened City on both a CRT and a plasma, it was only really noticeable on the larger screen of the latter.

The DD2.0 audio track is fine if lacking anything to make much note of. The dialogue, although using a couple of actors faking such thick Irish accents as to need subtitles, is always clear and understandable. The action, though, is quite sparse as are ambient effects, leaving this a talky thriller happiest in gyms, nightclubs and police cells. However, in spite of an occasional need for subtitles, there are none.

There are no extras on this DVD release.