''Hell Is a City'' is a 1960 British
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
based on the 1954
novel of the same title by
Maurice Procter
Maurice Procter (4 February 1906 – 28 April 1973) was an English novelist. He was born in Nelson, Lancashire, England.
Early life
Maurice Procter was born in Nelson, Lancashire, on 4 February 1906. His parents were Rose Hannah and William ...
. Written and directed by
Val Guest
Val Guest (born Valmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer, for whom he direct ...
, it was made by British studio
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve clas ...
and filmed in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. It was partly inspired by the
British New Wave
The British New Wave is a style of films released in Great Britain between 1959 and 1963. The label is a translation of '' Nouvelle Vague'', the French term first applied to the films of François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard among others.
Styli ...
films and resembles American Film Noir.
Plot
Committed but seen-it-all police inspector Martineau rightly guesses that after a violent jailbreak a local criminal will head home to
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
to pick up the spoils from his last job. Martineau is soon investigating a murder during a street robbery which seems to lead back to the same villain. Concentrating on the case and using his local contacts to try to track the gang down, he is aware he is not keeping his own personal life together as well as he might.
Cast
*
Stanley Baker
Sir William Stanley Baker (28 February 192828 June 1976) was a Welsh actor and film producer. Known for his rugged appearance and intense, grounded screen persona, he was one of the top British male film stars of the late 1950s, and later a pro ...
as
Inspector Harry Martineau
*
John Crawford as Don Starling
*
Donald Pleasence
Donald Henry Pleasence (; 5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an English actor. He began his career on stage in the West End before transitioning into a screen career, where he played numerous supporting and character roles including RAF ...
as Gus Hawkins
*
Maxine Audley
Maxine Audley (29 April 1923 – 23 July 1992) was an English theatre and film actress. She made her professional stage debut in July 1940 at the Open Air Theatre. Audley performed with the Old Vic company and the Royal Shakespeare Company many ...
as Julia Martineau
*
Billie Whitelaw
Billie Honor Whitelaw (6 June 1932 – 21 December 2014) was an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and was regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works. She was al ...
as Chloe Hawkins
*
Joseph Tomelty
Joseph Tomelty (5 March 1911 – 7 June 1995) was an Irish actor, playwright, novelist, short-story writer and theatre manager. He worked in film, television, radio and on the stage. starring in Sam Thompson's 1960 play ''Over the Bridge''.
...
as Furnisher Steele
*
George A. Cooper
George Alphonsus Cooper (7 March 1925 – 16 November 2018)
was an English actor and voice artist. He died in November 2018 at the age of 93.
Early life
Cooper was born in Leeds, the son of William and Eleanor (née Dobson) Cooper. His father ...
as Doug Savage
* Geoffrey Frederick as Detective Devery
*
Vanda Godsell
Vanda Godsell (17 November 1922 – 2 April 1990) was an English actress. Hal Erickson writes in Allmovie, "Vanda Godsell specialised in playing disheveled housewives, busybody landladies and blowsy domestics." She appeared as Mrs Weaver in ...
as Lucky Luske
* Charles Houston as Clogger Roach
*
Joby Blanshard
John Henry "Joby" Blanshard (7 November 1919 – 26 November 1992) was an English film and television actor, most famous for playing Colin Bradley in 32 episodes of the early 1970s "science-fact" series, ''Doomwatch''.
Filmography
* ''The Pas ...
as Tawny Jakes
*
Charles Morgan as Laurie Lovett
*
Peter Madden as Bert Darwin
*
Dickie Owen
Dickie Owen (26 March 1927 – 7 April 2015) was a British actor primarily known for his roles in '' Zulu'', ''The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb'' and ''The Mummy's Shroud
''The Mummy's Shroud'' is a 1967 British DeLuxe colour horror film made by ...
as Bragg
* Lois Daine as Cecily Wainwright
*
Warren Mitchell
Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell; 14 January 1926 – 14 November 2015) was a British actor. He was a BAFTA TV Award winner and twice a Laurence Olivier Award winner.
In the 1950s, Mitchell appeared on the radio programmes ''Educatin ...
as Commercial Traveller
*
Sarah Branch
Sarah Branch (7 January 1938 – 10 November 2007) was an English film actress and model.
Life
Before appearing in films Sarah Branch modelled wedding gowns at fashion shows.''Daily Mirror'' Obituary, 21 April 2007 She acted in two Hammer ...
as Silver Steele
*
Alister Williamson
Alister Williamson (17 June 1918 – 19 May 1999) was an Australian-born character actor, who appeared in many British films and television series of the 1960s and 1970s. A big, craggy-faced man, he would usually be found playing gruff police ins ...
as Sam
*
Russell Napier
Russell Gordon Napier (28 November 1910 – 19 August 1974) was an Australian actor.
Biography
Russell Napier was born in Perth, Western Australia. Originally a lawyer, Napier was active as an actor on the stage as early as 1936; on the scree ...
as Superintendent
*
Philip Bond
Philip J. Bond (born 11 July 1966, in Lancashire) is a People of the United Kingdom, British comic book artist, who first came to prominence in the late 1980s on ''Deadline magazine, Deadline'' magazine, and later through a number of collaborat ...
as Headquarters PC (uncredited)
*
John Comer
John Comer (1 March 1924 – 11 February 1984) was a British comic actor. He was best known for his roles in ''Coronation Street'' as Mr Birtles, then as a taxi driver, and later as Wilf Jones, in ''Emmerdale Farm'' as Ernie Shuttleworth, Les ...
as Plainclothes Police Driver (uncredited)
*
John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
* John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
* John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...
as Fingerprint Officer (uncredited)
*
Doris Speed
Doris Speed, MBE (3 February 1899 – 16 November 1994) was an English actress, best known for her role as landlady of the Rovers Return Inn Annie Walker on ''Coronation Street'', a role she played from the programme's first episode in 1960 unt ...
as Older Nursing Sister in Hospital (uncredited)
References
External links
*
*
*
*
Levenshulme: Hell is a City File- website on the Manchester suburb, with a page dedicated to the film and book on which it is based
1960 films
British crime thriller films
1960s crime thriller films
Films shot at Associated British Studios
1960s English-language films
British black-and-white films
Hammer Film Productions films
Films based on British novels
Films set in Manchester
Films directed by Val Guest
Films shot at Bray Studios
Police detective films
Films shot in Greater Manchester
1960s British films
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