''The Unstoppable Man'' is a 1960 British
crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
film directed by
Terry Bishop
Terry Bishop (21 October 1912 – 30 October 1981) was a British screenwriter, and television and film director. During the 1950s and 60s he worked extensively in British TV, directing episodes of series such as ''The Adventures of William Tell'' ...
and starring
Cameron Mitchell,
Harry H. Corbett
Harry H. Corbett OBE (28 February 1925 – 21 March 1982) was an English actor and comedian, best remembered for playing rag-and-bone man Harold Steptoe alongside Wilfrid Brambell in the long-running BBC television sitcom ''Steptoe and Son'' ( ...
,
Marius Goring
Marius Re Goring, (23 May 191230 September 1998) was a British stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in '' A Matter of Life and Death'' and as Julian Cr ...
and
Lois Maxwell
Lois Ruth Maxwell (born Lois Ruth Hooker; 14 February 1927 – 29 September 2007) was a Canadian actress who portrayed Miss Moneypenny in the first fourteen Eon-produced ''James Bond'' films (1962–1985). She was the first actress to play the ...
.
Plot
A gang of criminals kidnaps the son of James Kennedy, who is an American executive of a London-based chemical company.
Kennedy ignores the advice of Inspector Hazelrigg of Scotland Yard to try a plan of his own. He doubles the ransom amount, expecting the thieves to have a falling-out over how to divide it. One is indeed killed, and evidence at the crime scene leads Kennedy to a home in Hampstead where the mastermind, Feist, is keeping Kennedy's son.
Hazelrigg comes along, but agrees to give Kennedy a few minutes to enter the house alone. Armed with a flamethrower, Kennedy is able to take his son to safety while the police close in on Feist.
Cast
*
Cameron Mitchell as James Kennedy
*
Marius Goring
Marius Re Goring, (23 May 191230 September 1998) was a British stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in '' A Matter of Life and Death'' and as Julian Cr ...
as Inspector Hazelrigg
*
Harry H. Corbett
Harry H. Corbett OBE (28 February 1925 – 21 March 1982) was an English actor and comedian, best remembered for playing rag-and-bone man Harold Steptoe alongside Wilfrid Brambell in the long-running BBC television sitcom ''Steptoe and Son'' ( ...
as Feist
*
Lois Maxwell
Lois Ruth Maxwell (born Lois Ruth Hooker; 14 February 1927 – 29 September 2007) was a Canadian actress who portrayed Miss Moneypenny in the first fourteen Eon-produced ''James Bond'' films (1962–1985). She was the first actress to play the ...
as Helen Kennedy
* Denis Gilmore as Jimmy Kennedy
*
Humphrey Lestocq
Humphrey Lestocq (23 January 1919 – 29 January 1984) was a British actor, best known for his roles in '' Angels One Five'' (1952) and '' The Long Shadow'' (1961), and guest appearances in the television series '' The Avengers''.
Lestocq s ...
as Sergeant Plummer
* Ann Sears as Pat Delaney
*
Timothy Bateson
Timothy Dingwall Bateson (3 April 1926 – 15 September 2009) was an English actor.
Life and career
Born in London, the son of solicitor Dingwall Latham Bateson and the great-nephew of rugby player Harold Dingwall Bateson, he was educated at U ...
as Rocky
*
Kenneth Cope
Kenneth Charles Cope (born 14 April 1931) is an English retired actor and scriptwriter. He is best known for his roles as Marty Hopkirk in ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'', Jed Stone in ''Coronation Street'' and Ray Hilton in ''Brookside (T ...
as Benny
*
Brian Rawlinson
Brian Rawlinson (12 November 1931 – 23 November 2000)["Brian Rawlinson"](_blank)
''BFI''. Retr ...
as Moonlight Jackson
* Tony Quinn as Casey
* Tony Doonan as Alan
* Susan Denny as Milly
* Jean Marlow as May
* Edward Harvey as Lewis
* Emrys Leyshon as Lab Assistant
* Tony Hawes as TV Interviewer
*
Alan Edwards as Station Constable
* John Baker as Reporter
* Liza Page as Club Girl
* Donald Auld as Doorman
* Graham Stewart as Taxi Driver
Critical reception
In a contemporary review, ''
The Monthly Film Bulletin
''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...
'' praised the film's "sharply drawn characters", "authentic backgrounds" and "slick and resourceful" direction; and more recently, ''Mystery File'' wrote, "While there’s nothing in ''The Unstoppable Man'' that’s exceptional, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good — make that a very good — crime film. Running at around seventy minutes, it’s economical both on plot and the viewer’s time. But what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in atmosphere and an early 1960s jazz-influenced soundtrack that works very well."
References
External links
*
1960 films
1960 crime drama films
British crime drama films
Films directed by Terry Bishop
Films about child abduction
1960s English-language films
1960s British films
{{crime-drama-film-stub