SoftInloveRox
Horrible, fascist and poorly acted
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Jerrie
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
jamesraeburn2003
A young juvenile delinquent at war with his folks, his bosses and the world at large mugs and kills an elderly blind man. Meanwhile, his friend who took the rap for a robbery they did together Johhny (Kenneth Cope), is released from Wormwood Scrubs and wants his share of the proceeds. Johnny, naturally, has spent it so to pay off his friend they rob £1000 from the safe at the Adam and Eve club. More trouble brews for Terry when Joe Lucas (Ian Weske)knows that he did the murder and blackmails him to keep quiet. Terry double crosses Johnny, hooks it with the money and flees to the flat where Adam and Eve club dancer and Johnny's girlfriend, Sue (Jill Ireland), lives. However, tipped off, the police arrive and surround the place and, in desperation, Terry holds both Sue and an elderly tailor hostage in the flat and tragedy strikes...Made only a few years before McCallam (here appearing with his then wife Jill Ireland) shot to fame as Illya Kuriyakin in the hit Man From UNCLE spy series; he looks uncomfortably cast here as small time teenage thug Terry Collins. In addition, the film's attempt to be a gritty, hard hitting study about Soho low life is almost sunk by the laughably bad Adam and Eve club scenes: a young lady billed as Dimples, for example, singing a terrible number called I'm Only A Girl complete with really bad dancing. On the musical side of things, the Shadows styled instrumental theme tune (Harold Geller) fits in better with what the film aspires to be. Charles Saunders' direction, while not exactly inspiring, is pacy and efficient and Jimmy Harvey's documentary style b/w cinematography lends the sets such as the Adam and Eve club's seedy interior and the terraced house where Collins lives including its kitchen with its awful fried breakfasts a genuine sense of authenticity. Despite its attempts to be gritty and hard hitting falling flat, we can enjoy Jungle Street (aka Jungle Street Girls) as an enjoyable film of its period - the early sixties - that always looked great in these films and a nostalgic reminder of a genteel era of British movie making that has long since gone. Fans of The Man From UNCLE I am sure will want to check this out for an early David McCallam role even if it is a part in which he looks miscast somewhat.
Leofwine_draca
JUNGLE STREET is a low rent British crime film from prolific director Charles Saunders. It has a fair share of problems but nonetheless works thanks to some strong acting from the leads and the narrative itself, which is a fun mish-mash of timely themes and the occasional bit of suspense.The film incorporates some of the burgeoning 'kitchen sink' drama genre into its running time in its depiction of the home life of youthful tearaway David McCallum, a man who despises his family and his whole class and wants to make something better for himself. This means turning to crime to make ends meet, and you can guess how that ends up. Like a lot of low budget British crime films, much of the action centres around a nightclub, or rather a strip club in this instance.This is where much of the padding comes into it. The first half of the film in particular is full of tame striptease sequences which show no nudity but are nonetheless quite racy at times. They go on forever and they parade many attractive actresses around which is no bad thing really, particularly when the chief stripper is the young and lovely Jill Ireland, a really arresting presence here.The plot is further complicated by police investigation and the release from jail of a seasoned criminal, played with relish by Kenneth Cope. Cope and McCallum have some good scenes together which makes the story work. There's an inevitable heist sequence which is well directed and an effective climax. No classic, but more than watchable for what it is.
naseby
Not entirely awful, but not entirely good either, Mainly, if you're a fan of the British film-noir crime genre of course. David McCallum, a brooding, vicious, little villain decides to kill for money. Enter his old chum Kenneth Cope, fresh out of prison as the mate wanting his cut from another job they did yet HE went inside for. McCallum talks his chum into that 'one last job'at the strip club he frequents, having sized-up the Boss's takings from the office safe even though Cope's five minutes out of prison. But can McCallum ride his luck and stop at killing? Nope - he carries on, basically. That's about it and of course, as no-one in those days in British cinema at least was allowed to be seen to be getting away with crime, (until after 1970 I believe?). That's about it as I say, he gets his in the end. Set among the world of a strip club in typical 50s/60s style of Brylcreem, cigarettes and bad jazz music complete with cymbals at the drum kit,(oh and London smog) the script is pretty ordinary and does drag in a few places. It has its 'kitchen-sink' atmosphere, arguing with his dad, but he is a villain so it's not surprising. However, it has just enough to hold you as another one for the wet Saturday/Sunday afternoon slot when you haven't anything to do. It IS, interestingly worth seeing alone perhaps for McCallum playing an out-of-character villain, with a cockney accent of sorts, something not seen a lot of in his career, the only other one offhand I can think of for him was 'Violent Playground'. Although Cope's played 'wrong-uns' he plays a good role as just that. Worth also of note, McCallum's then-wife Jill Ireland starring as the 'girl in the picture'. Pretty lame ending but the one you couldn't do much with, well, they couldn't here!
malcolmgsw
This film is mainly set in a striptease club where none of the girls actually take off more than a pair of shoes.All rather tame.Having already killed a man in a street robbery Mccallum teams up with Cope ,just out of jail to rob the club.Mccallum wants all the money for himself and lays out Cope.Rather a silly thing to do bearing in mind that Cope had previously covered up Mccallum's involvement in a prior robbery.The caretaker raises the alarm.Mccallum takes Ireland hostage in her flat.A tailor in the next door office tries to disarm him and is shot and killed.Mccallum is caught by the police and takes him off for his date with the hangman.All rather poverty stricken,padded out with some truly hopeless acts at the club.I wonder if there was a "continental"version of this film.Might have been more interesting.
