Phil C
11-29-2010, 10:28 AM
I saw it on TCM last night and it is a great movie and I don't know how I missed it in the past. An alternate title is The Concrete Jungle. It was made in England in 1960 and stars Stanley Baker. He was lost to us too soon and was not given the roles he deserved but he is fantastic in this great movie. He plays Johnny Bannion who is servinag a 3 year prison sentence but is planning a robbery. When he gets out he and his partner Mike Carter carry out the plan and get away with $100,000 (about $1.5M today). Johnny hides the money in a field except for some to buy his girl friend a ring. He is betrayed by a former girlfriend to the police and starts serving a 15 year sentence. He refuses to tell Carter where the money is. Carter has his prison contacts to beat Johnny to tell him where the money is and even the guards participate and allow it. He refuses. Carter's mob then holds his girlfriend hostage and arranges for Johnny to escape so he can trick him into leading them to the money. Johnny rescues his girlfriend but one of Carter's over-anxious gunmen mortally wounds him. He dies without revealing the hiding place leaving Carter and his men still searching for the money.
A brilliant movie and I want to see it again. I will post when TCM shows it again which no doubt they will since last night was the first time it was shown.
A brilliant movie and I want to see it again. I will post when TCM shows it again which no doubt they will since last night was the first time it was shown.