Film Review - The Challenge (a.k.a It Takes A Thief - 1960)
Region 1 DVD cover
Jim (Anthony Quayle) falls fall a lady gangster called Billy (Jayne Mansfield) who persuades him into helping her and a gang led by Kristy (Carl Mohner) into pulling a £50,000 raid on an armoured vehicle. They pull off the job and Jim is handed the task of driving the get away van and stashing the loot, which he does at an unoccupied farm in the country. However, Kristy double crosses Jim and he is sent down for five years whilst Billy and the gang continue to pull off various raids and eluding the police. On Jim's release, the police decide to use him as they believe that he will lead them to Christy and his gang. Meanwhile, Christy and the gang abduct Jim's six-year-old son Joey and threaten to kill him unless Jim reveals where he stashed the loot. Billy always saw herself as the leader of the gang but she finds herself getting in way above her head since now, Christy has assumed control and is making sure that everybody knows who's boss. Jim was planning to double cross Billy and Christy and use the stolen money to buy a farm and start a new life with his son . Jim must now race against time to find out where Christy and the gang are holding his son before it is too late.
There is nothing wrong with the basic plot of this crime melodrama although this type of thing has been done before and better we might add. The main problems are the general handling in which the producers were clearly trying to make a crime film in the American mould and ultimately fail miserably. In the typical b-pic tradition, a US star in the form of Jayne Mansfield was imported to try and bolster the movie's chances in the States but sadly she looks uncomfortable in the part of the lady gang boss dressed in her mink coat, jewellery and driving one of those fuel guzzling American saloon cars as she mingles with London's underground made up of British b-movie veterans such as Peter Reynolds and Patrick Holt who look equally lost in their American styled suits and gangster hats. The screenplay by Writer-Director John Gilling attempts to portray the Mansfield character as somebody who starts out all tough making out that she is the boss of the gang but finally gets way out of her depth as the ruthless thug, Christy, ultimately assumes control and she can do nothing about it. But the film is so lost in its determination to come across as American that any good intentions on the part of the script to add some character study are swept away. The best performance in the film comes from Anthony Quayle as the anguished father racing against the clock to save his young son from Christy's machinations but finds himself being betrayed by both the law and the crooks. Director Gilling would go on to do better things for the Hammer studio during the sixties with such films as The Plague Of The Zombies and The Reptile.
Jim (Anthony Quayle) falls fall a lady gangster called Billy (Jayne Mansfield) who persuades him into helping her and a gang led by Kristy (Carl Mohner) into pulling a £50,000 raid on an armoured vehicle. They pull off the job and Jim is handed the task of driving the get away van and stashing the loot, which he does at an unoccupied farm in the country. However, Kristy double crosses Jim and he is sent down for five years whilst Billy and the gang continue to pull off various raids and eluding the police. On Jim's release, the police decide to use him as they believe that he will lead them to Christy and his gang. Meanwhile, Christy and the gang abduct Jim's six-year-old son Joey and threaten to kill him unless Jim reveals where he stashed the loot. Billy always saw herself as the leader of the gang but she finds herself getting in way above her head since now, Christy has assumed control and is making sure that everybody knows who's boss. Jim was planning to double cross Billy and Christy and use the stolen money to buy a farm and start a new life with his son . Jim must now race against time to find out where Christy and the gang are holding his son before it is too late.
There is nothing wrong with the basic plot of this crime melodrama although this type of thing has been done before and better we might add. The main problems are the general handling in which the producers were clearly trying to make a crime film in the American mould and ultimately fail miserably. In the typical b-pic tradition, a US star in the form of Jayne Mansfield was imported to try and bolster the movie's chances in the States but sadly she looks uncomfortable in the part of the lady gang boss dressed in her mink coat, jewellery and driving one of those fuel guzzling American saloon cars as she mingles with London's underground made up of British b-movie veterans such as Peter Reynolds and Patrick Holt who look equally lost in their American styled suits and gangster hats. The screenplay by Writer-Director John Gilling attempts to portray the Mansfield character as somebody who starts out all tough making out that she is the boss of the gang but finally gets way out of her depth as the ruthless thug, Christy, ultimately assumes control and she can do nothing about it. But the film is so lost in its determination to come across as American that any good intentions on the part of the script to add some character study are swept away. The best performance in the film comes from Anthony Quayle as the anguished father racing against the clock to save his young son from Christy's machinations but finds himself being betrayed by both the law and the crooks. Director Gilling would go on to do better things for the Hammer studio during the sixties with such films as The Plague Of The Zombies and The Reptile.
posted by Michael Harris | 5:01 pm
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