Rent Crossroads to Crime (1960)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- PC Don Ross (Anthony Oliver) suspects that a gang of lorry hijackers, operating from a transport café, is behind a series of vehicle thefts. When his suspicions are dismissed by his superiors, Ross decides to conduct his own undercover investigation, and sets out to collect vital evidence that could convict the gang...
- Actors:
- Miriam Karlin, George Murcell, David Graham, Victor Maddern, Bill Sawyer, Terence Brook, Anthony Oliver, Patricia Heneghan, Ferdy Mayne, Geoffrey Denton, Arthur Rigby, Harry Towb, J. Mark Roberts, Donald Tandy, David Sale, Terry Bale, Peter Diamond, William Kerwin
- Directors:
- Gerry Anderson
- Producers:
- Gerry Anderson
- Writers:
- Edgar Wallace, Alun Falconer
- Aka:
- Edgar Wallace: Crossroads to Crime
- Studio:
- Network
- Genres:
- Classics, Thrillers
- Collections:
- A Brief History of the Golden Age of Children's TV: Puppets and Animation, Heist Movies: A 20-Year Stretch, A Brief History of Film...
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Reviews (1) of Crossroads to Crime
Brains behind the Operation - Crossroads to Crime review by CH
“Captain Scarlet. He is indestructible. You are not.”
That warning comes to mind when watching the opening scenes of Crossroads to Crime (1960). Why on earth should that be the case? This was several years before that puppet series became an international success after Thunderbirds. True, these few minutes feature a Police Constable (Anthony Oliver) who is clinging onto the side of a Ford Zephyr whose driver is making off, somewhere in the vicinity of Slough, with a kidnapped woman (Miriam Karlin) who, a cigarette forever on her lips, works behind the counter of a transport caff which is a front for a racket which takes place out the back as trucks pull up to refill with diesel. And, of course, out of sight, behind all this, there is a smooth Mr. Big in a smart house.
To keep you out of suspense any further: this was directed by Gerry Anderson, with uncredited help from his wife Sylvia. At this time, they had achieved some initial success with their puppets when a telephone call came to ask if they would like to take
on a B-film with humans. The budget was minimal, the time available (a fortnight) even less, and, in their view, the proffered script (by Alan Falconer) as wooden as any puppet.
Needs must, they set to work and - in a hoot of a ten-minute extra on the DVD – they and others recall those two weeks with incredulous horror (Gerry Anderson is filmed in front of a picture of Captain Scarlet).
And yet, sixty years on, these fifty-four minutes pass agreeably enough. After all, any film which turns around trucking heists (think of both versions of They Drive By Night) has an interest, as does the caff (in which Miriam Karlin is as formidable as she was in her fabled part as a bolshie, trade-union worker in The Rag Trade). There is good use of locations (all those near-empty streets), dark nights on the Great North Road, even darker moments in the ad hoc basement warehouse.
In its way, all as effective a cover for operations as Tracey Island.