Humphrey Bogart's High Sierra or The Petrified Forest never end well. Nor do Jane Greer's excursions. And that's just America. There's Europe too - Truffaut's Breathless or Shoot the Pianist (from David Goodis' Down There on a Visit). They don't end well either.
Little trips to the countryside undo the best laid plans, and Mike's plans were laid by Sally rather than by him and it shows.
He's a wannabe and a bit of a softie which he hides by growling and cursing at Troy his young sidekick and the growing relationship with Gloria.
Watch Gloria - she's the one, the Bette Davis, the survivor.
Troy is a surprise - an innocent but canny and very very fast on his feet.
There is of course a McGuffin - a bag of money. Everyone wants it but no one seems to want to take it away. Eventually it ends up in the hands of those who perhaps need it rather than want it.
Then there's the music. That's unusual - overlaid over film noir, it shouldn't but it does work. Johnny Flynn has enormous fun translating his music for new singers and providing little extras. Apart from set songs like IN THE DEEPEST, HARD ROAD and JEFFERSON'S TORCH, which are sung as and when appropriate, Troy and Gloria also do a version of BROWN TROUT BLUES together and CHANSON (new) is heard murmuring in the background via the radio. As the BFI notes say: '...the songs weren't telling the story, they were telling the emotional journey of the characters..." which is pretty well what Johnny Flynn's music does all the time.
There is other music of course - very reminiscent of Flynn's score for A BAG OF HAMMERS long ago - which ties the film together.
So I loved it - a musical, a heist, a love story and a British film noir - who could ask for anything more.
Malachi Smyth's first feature deserves respect but essentially it deserves to be seen. SO GO SEE IT.
Little trips to the countryside undo the best laid plans, and Mike's plans were laid by Sally rather than by him and it shows.
He's a wannabe and a bit of a softie which he hides by growling and cursing at Troy his young sidekick and the growing relationship with Gloria.
Watch Gloria - she's the one, the Bette Davis, the survivor.
Troy is a surprise - an innocent but canny and very very fast on his feet.
There is of course a McGuffin - a bag of money. Everyone wants it but no one seems to want to take it away. Eventually it ends up in the hands of those who perhaps need it rather than want it.
Then there's the music. That's unusual - overlaid over film noir, it shouldn't but it does work. Johnny Flynn has enormous fun translating his music for new singers and providing little extras. Apart from set songs like IN THE DEEPEST, HARD ROAD and JEFFERSON'S TORCH, which are sung as and when appropriate, Troy and Gloria also do a version of BROWN TROUT BLUES together and CHANSON (new) is heard murmuring in the background via the radio. As the BFI notes say: '...the songs weren't telling the story, they were telling the emotional journey of the characters..." which is pretty well what Johnny Flynn's music does all the time.
There is other music of course - very reminiscent of Flynn's score for A BAG OF HAMMERS long ago - which ties the film together.
So I loved it - a musical, a heist, a love story and a British film noir - who could ask for anything more.
Malachi Smyth's first feature deserves respect but essentially it deserves to be seen. SO GO SEE IT.