''Rag Doll'', released in the USA as ''Young, Willing and Eager'', is a 1961 British

B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

crime film, directed by

Lance Comfort Lance Comfort (11 August 1908 – 25 August 1966) was an English film director. In a career spanning over 25 years, he became one of the most prolific film directors in Britain, though he never gained critical attention and remained on the ...

and starring actor and singer

Jess Conrad Jess Conrad (born Gerald Arthur James; 24 February 1936) is an English stage and screen actor and singer. As a boy he was nicknamed "Jesse" after American outlaw Jesse James; as there was already an actor named "Gerald James" in Actors' Equity, a ...

. The film gained a new audience in the 2000s in response to Conrad's elevation to cult status as a purveyor of late-1950s and early-1960s pre-Beatles British kitsch, and received a Region 2 DVD release in 2009 in a double bill with Comfort's 1962 film ''

The Painted Smile ''The Painted Smile'' is a 1962 British thriller film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Liz Fraser, Kenneth Griffith, Peter Reynolds and Tony Wickert. The film was known in the USA as ''Murder Can Be Deadly''. Plot Tom, a student, comes un ...

''.

Plot

Seventeen-year-old Carol (Christina Gregg) flees her small-town home to escape from her alcoholic stepfather, and heads off to London. Once in London she is drawn to the sleazy excitement of

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

and finds work in a coffee bar. She falls in love with handsome young

nightclub singer A nightclub act is a production, usually of nightclub music or comedy, designed for performance at a nightclub, a type of drinking establishment, by a nightclub performer such as a nightclub singer or nightclub dancer, whose performance may ...

Joe Shane (Conrad) and soon they are a couple. She then discovers that Joe is a small-time crook on the side, with a gang background and a line in burglary. At work, Carol finds herself on the receiving end of advances from all manner of men, including her boss, Mort Wilson (

Kenneth Griffith Kenneth Griffith (born Kenneth Reginald Griffiths, 12 October 1921 – 25 June 2006) was a Welsh actor and documentary filmmaker. His outspoken views made him a controversial figure, especially when presenting documentaries which have been ca ...

), who, though older, professes to be in love with her. When Carol becomes pregnant, Joe decides to do "one last job" to make the money to take them to a fresh start in Canada. He burgles Mort's house but Mort catches him. After shooting Mort dead, Joe, himself severely wounded, goes on the run with Carol in a stolen car. However because of his injuries they crash in a country lane and carry on by foot. Pursued by the police in a field Joe still holding his gun finally collapses and dies from his injuries.

Cast

as Joe Shane *

Hermione Baddeley Hermione Youlanda Ruby Clinton-Baddeley (13 November 1906 – 19 August 1986) was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She typically played brash, vulgar characters, often referred to as "brassy" or "blowsy".Folkart, Burt, "Noted ...

as Auntie *

as Mort Wilson * Christina Gregg as Carol * Patrick Magee as Flynn *

Patrick Jordan Albert Patrick Jordan (10 October 1923 – 10 January 2020) was a British stage, film and television actor. Biography He was born and raised in Harrow, Middlesex, the son of Margaret, a cook, and Albert Jordan, a regimental sergeant major. An ...

as Wills * Michael Wynne as Bellamy * Frank Forsyth as Superintendent *

External links

*
''Rag Doll''
at BFI Film & TV Database 1961 films 1961 crime films British crime films Films directed by Lance Comfort British black-and-white films Films shot at Nettlefold Studios Films set in London 1960s English-language films 1960s British films {{1960s-crime-film-stub