The British came to film noir at just about the same time that the Americans did -- it's just that fewer people noticed, and the genre never grabbed the imagination of audiences in England the way that it did Americans. But the British film industry did its share of film noir, of which Appointment With Crime is a good example, in addition to being the best picture that director John Harlow ever made. William Hartnell is a nasty, unpleasant, yet ever-so-slightly sympathetic protagonist, a crook with smashed wrists, the latter owing to the machinations of his boss Loman (Raymond Lovell at his oiliest). With his receding chin and darting, beady eyes, he resembles a demonic version of the kind of belligerent eccentrics that Howard Morris later specialized in on television. And the world he inhabits is filled with people just as unpleasant as he is, including untrustworthy (and un-reliable) gang leader Loman, gullible taxi dancer Joyce Howard, manipulative, murderous money man Gregory Lang (Herbert Lom), and his flamboyantly gay assassin Penn (Alan Wheatley). So when he starts planning revenge and murder -- and can figure far enough ahead to work out an alibi to give Inspector Rogers (Robert Beatty), as well as turn Lang's self-protective impulses to his advantage -- one can almost identify with his character, to the degree of wanting him to succeed, at least part of the way. Hartnell's energy drives this movie forward, and he's helped by some clever intermingling of montage sequences at the beginning, and quite a few odd and disconcerting camera angles at stretegic points, which make this movie look very interesting at several strategic points. Some of the expositional sequences plod a bit, but overall this is a lively, offbeat crime thriller with a lot of dark shadows, psychological and otherwise, hanging over its characters and action.
by Bruce Eder
review
