Sydney Tafler is a petty thief, a 'wide boy', who sells stolen nylon stockings to make ends meet. While taking his girl Susan Shaw to a classier place than their usual hang-outs, he spots a couple and thinks he has seen the man somewhere before. When the woman, Melissa Stribling, goes away for a bit, she leaves her handbag at the bar. Tafler manages to steal her wallet from it. Besides a decent amount of money, he also finds a letter in it, exposing the man, renowned and married doctor Colin Tapley, as having an affair with Stribling. Tafler decides to do a little blackmail. With deadly consequences...The movie poster's tagline is 'Her lust for money stopped at nothing... even murder!' but this woman is nowhere to be seen in the movie. There is no femme fatale here. Tafler ('Assassin For Hire', 'The Lavender Hill Mob') however is one of those noir grifters like Widmark's Harry Fabian, living from day to day, always out for a quick buck trying to find the big pay day. He sees an opportunity for a lot of extra money, he takes it, and he's screwed. Tafler's great and convincing without over-playing it, he's just another guy trying to make a living, albeit a slightly illegal one. The rest of the cast is decent, but it's Tafler who carries this movie.This was director Ken Hughes's first movie ('The House Across The Lake', 'Joe MacBeth') but he does really well here, the movie has a good pace and by focusing almost squarely on Tafler, it's easy to not worry too much about the more illogical actions of, especially, Tapley. Hughes and DoP Josef Ambor ('Wrong Number') even manage to make the night time scenes, in abandoned alleys and a pedestrian bridge across railroad tracks at Paddington Station, come alive with shadows, wet cobblestones and a lot of locomotive smoke. Really nicely done, and adding to the overall enjoyment of the movie. All in all, it's maybe a bit too straight-forward plot-wise to truly be a hidden gem, but well worth watching for Tafler and the cinematography. 7+/10

Sidney Tafler plays the eponymous wide boy.It was another term for a spin.Private Walker in Dads Army is such a character.Living by their wits and dealing in the black market,which was still thriving at the time of this film due to rationing.Poor old Sidney is fed up with having his collar felt by the law for illegal street trading.Short of money his opportunistic theft of a wallet from a ladies bag yields more than money.Conveniently the lady has kept a compromising letter.This gives Sidney the chance to blackmail her famous surgeon lover.The surgeon pays the blackmail but doesn't get the letter.Sydney tries it again but ends up murdering the victim.Sydney falls to his death in a very tense ending.This is a great B film with fine performances.

This is a good example of how to do a lot with relatively little, in this story of a London spiv who makes a bid for the big time and ends up getting in over his head. There are inevitable echoes with "Night and the City", but this low-budget Merton Park Studios production is on a much smaller scale and rarely aims beyond its reach.There is some fine acting by Sydney Tafler as the oleaginous Benny, and by Susan Shaw and Melissa Stribling as the central female characters, Molly and Caroline, who finally come face to face by coincidence in a meeting that gives Caroline her chance. Ronald Howard is billed rather more prominently than I felt his part actually justified; nominally the chief detective, he has in fact very little to do.There are limited interior sets, but some clever and effective shots (was that cat specifically staged, or did it just wander up to actor Colin Tapley at an appropriate moment?) within the resources available. Tension is genuine during many of the scenes, and although the protagonist behaves badly more or less from start to finish we end up feeling for him as he is trapped and apparently betrayed.As with tonight's double-bill companion "To the Public Danger", however, the film suffers in its final moments from what appears to be a desire to insert an explicit public-information moral into the dialogue in case the audience had failed to get it from the story alone: unfortunately it's not made terribly clear just why Benny buys the gun in the first place. (Moral support, presumably?)

Wide boy is a British term for a man who lives by his wits, wheeling and dealing.The always oily Sydney Tafler plays a low rent crook who survives by selling black-market nylons. His girl, Susan Shaw, is always giving him a hard time about his lack of cash. She is forever peppering him with lines like, "Why can't you ever take me somewhere nice"! Tafler finally breaks down and takes Shaw to an upscale bar. He only has enough money for a single drink each. He sees a couple, Colin Tapley and Melissa Stirbling having a heated discussion at the bar. Tafler wanders over and lifts the woman's wallet while her attention is otherwise diverted. Tafler grabs up Shaw and out they go. Back at his flat, Tafler goes through the wallet to see what he has scored. It contains a nice wad of bills and a letter. The letter, a love note, is written to Stribling from her married lover, Tapley. Tapley is a famous surgeon who just happens to be up for a Knighthood. The old light bulb goes off as Tafler sees the solution to his cash flow problems. A spot of blackmail seems in order. He contacts the pair and offers to return the letter for a couple of hundred pounds. With Tapley's forthcoming Knighthood at stake, a scandal is the last thing he wants. Tapley agrees to the exchange. Tafler knows a good scam when he sees it and pulls a fast one during the exchange. He slips Tapley an envelope with a fake note and keeps the real letter. He is in the dough! Not being the swiftest lad, he quickly runs through the coin. A new suit, pays up the rent and a nice bit of jewelry for Shaw make short work of the cash. It is time to contact Tapley for another "loan". This time the exchange goes bad and Tapley is killed. Now Tafler is on the run and out of his element. His friends vanish and the police close in. An escape attempt through a rail yard ends with Tafler under the wheels of a train.This is a good looking low renter with great camera-work and a tight story.Tafler, who made a career out of playing these types, was also in UNEASY TERMS, ONCE A SINNER, ASSASSIN FOR HIRE, THE SCARLET THREAD, MYSTERY JUNCTION, THE VENETIAN BIRD, OPERATION DIPLOMAT, THE GLASS CAGE, DIAL 999, THE LONG ARM and THE BANK RAIDERS. Susan Shaw was in MY BROTHER'S KEEPER, IT ONLY RAINS ON SUNDAYS, WATERFRONT, POOL OF London, THE WOMAN IN QUESTION, THE GOOD DIE YOUNG and THE DIPLOMATIC CORPSE. The rest of the cast includes Leslie Howard's son, Ron, Gerald Case and Laidman Browne.The director was Ken Hughes. Hughes work includes, BLACK 13, HEATWAVE, THE BRAIN MACHINE, CASE OF THE RED MONKEY, CONFESSION, JOE MACBETH, WICKED AS THEY COME, THE LONG HAUL and THE SMALL WORLD OF SAMMY LEE. The d of p was Josef Amber who worked on CASE OF THE RED MONKEY, BRAIN MACHINE and THE CASE OF CHARLES PEACE.An enjoyable, quick paced time-waster that runs just over an hour.