The Marked One

Veteran director Francis Searle equips himself very well in his fabulously terse crime thriller 'The Marked One' in one of the more actively thrilling, under-documented British crime B-pictures of the 1960s. Handsome, tough-as-hobnail boots Truckie, and ex-lag, trying to go straight Don Mason (William Lucas) has his altogether noble attempts to make a new start for himself brusquely thwarted by a savage back-alley beating by burly thugs unknown, this violent altercation heralds an increasingly frantic series of threatening events, Don's estranged wife Kay (Zena Walker), and innocent young daughter being inexorably drawn into the toxic miasma of the underworld, as, sadly, Don's foolhardy past dalliances with crime are proving increasingly hard to avoid! 'The Marked one' is a consistently engaging, competently-made, brightly acted, flint-edged B-Thriller; a lean, well-sprung, moodily photographed monochrome marvel from the sin-slinging Britain of the 1960s, with the delightfully appealing, blonde-haired actor William Lukas energetically making for a compellingly twin-fisted anti-hero in his desperate, adrenalized rush to make good. This a must-see for 60s B/W crime movie buffs, and also includes a commendably sprightly jazzy score by Bernie Fenton & Frank Patten ta' boot!

THE MARKED ONE represents a very typical early 60's Brit B pic - entertaining enough for its short duration but hardly memorable.

William Lucas plays Don Mason, a tough cookie but underneath it all basically a sound chap; recently released from the clink, he's pursued by some unsavoury ex-associates while trying to hold down a driving job and living in modest digs. When his daughter is threatened, his estranged wife (Zena Marshall) reappears- and that spells the end for whatever cosy arrangement he had with housemate Maisie (Laurie Lee).

Patrick Jordan plays the enigmatic "Insp Mayne" dropping in and out of the narrative, which potters along to an underwhelming conclusion.

Watch out for shots of The Pilot pub in Chiswick - still standing after all these years; fortunately the management will have changed out of all recognition from this film, where Arthur Lovegrove's turn as a creepy, lascivious owner is unsatisfyingly not given its full comeuppance. David Gregory appears briefly- another "forgotten" name from the early 60s B studios.

An early production of Tom Blakeley's Planet Pictures (soon to turn its attention to horror and sci-fi).

Superficially this looks like just another British 'B' budget crime potboiler of the period, but it has a sharp storyline worth paying attention to, bolstered by a large supporting cast of fleshed-out characters well acted.

This is a British Crime thriller which manages to long outstay its welcome despite the fact that it only lasts just over one hour.Lucas plays a lorry driver who is recently out of prison.It appears that he either has or knows where he can find plates for making forged banknotes.For this reason he is a very popular or unpopular man,The scriptwriter seems to have decided to throw in as many elements as he can think of for this type of thriller with the result that it is an unexciting mess.Furthermore it is not that difficult to work out the identity of the mysterious threatening voice on the telephone.Despite the fact that this film was made at MGM Borehamwood studios the production looks threadbare and poverty stricken.The producer is Tom Blakely so presumably this film had some connection with Mancunian Studios.

William Lucas is a quiet, clearly unhappy man, living in a residential hotel and working on the docks. It soon becomes clear that he is just out of prison for being involved in a counterfeiting ring. He fell, but no one else did, and he kept shtum, and nothing more has been heard from the ring. He's got a wife (Zena Walker) who lives with their child. The police come by occasionally to threaten Lucas, and now some one is threatening his daughter unless he turns over the plates to the counterfeit money. He doesn't know where they are.

Leigh is good in the lead role, but more than this, it's the very model of a crime B: short, and gets the job done at a good pace under the direction of Francis Searle. Searle was one of those mainstays of the Quota Quickies in the 1950s. He entered the industry doing shorts in the 1930s, graduated to features with an A picture, A GIRL IN A MILLION, then displayed his talent for coming in on budget and never got a big one again. With the right script and cast, he could turn out a nifty little movie, but he didn't get many of those. This was his last feature. He directed three more shorts through 1968, wrote and produced for four more years, and died in 2002 at the age of 93.