The London Mob

bkoganbing

The Frightened City is one of several films where Sean Connery is getting more and more noticed, leading to the stardom he would obtain the following year as James Bond. Though he's third billed in The Frightened City, it's his performance you'll remember.

Herbert Lom, a seemingly respectable businessman, is asked to launder some money by Alfred Marks one of London's top crime bosses. It occurs to Lom he's in unique position to make some really good money off all the crime bosses of London if they can be organized. Using Marks as a front, Lom does just that and the two of them hire Connery to be their chief enforcer in their protection racket.

It all works out really well when the hoods are muscling small businessmen for protection, but when they start going after bigger targets David Davies becomes squeamish and Lom and Marks decide he's to be eliminated. They use Connery to set him up and when Connery realizes he's unwittingly helped do in a friend he becomes a man with a mission. It's never good to have Sean Connery with a mission after you.

I think you can figure out the rest of the film. The Frightened City is a plot done many times over in American noir films which cycle had ended about five years earlier in America. This one gives you a nice glimpse of the seamier side of London. It was interesting by the way to hear the objections to going after big targets who might have influence with members of Parliament and the Home Office. Crooks are the same all over the world, pick on those you think can't fight back.

John Gregson is the Scotland Yard inspector who heads what we would call the organized crime unit there. He represents the good guys, but it's the bad ones that make The Frightened City an interesting film.

score 6/10

bkoganbing 7 May 2009

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2063201/