Jungle Street (1960)

Please don't spend money on this.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A young juvenile delinquent at war with his folks, his bosses and the world at large mugs and kills an elderly blind man. Meanwhile, his friend who took the rap for a robbery they did together Johhny (Kenneth Cope), is released from Wormwood Scrubs and wants his share of the proceeds. Johnny, naturally, has spent it so to pay off his friend they rob £1000 from the safe at the Adam and Eve club. More trouble brews for Terry when Joe Lucas (Ian Weske)knows that he did the murder and blackmails him to keep quiet. Terry double crosses Johnny, hooks it with the money and flees to the flat where Adam and Eve club dancer and Johnny's girlfriend, Sue (Jill Ireland), lives. However, tipped off, the police arrive and surround the place and, in desperation, Terry holds both Sue and an elderly tailor hostage in the flat and tragedy strikes...Made only a few years before McCallam (here appearing with his then wife Jill Ireland) shot to fame as Illya Kuriyakin in the hit Man From UNCLE spy series; he looks uncomfortably cast here as small time teenage thug Terry Collins. In addition, the film's attempt to be a gritty, hard hitting study about Soho low life is almost sunk by the laughably bad Adam and Eve club scenes: a young lady billed as Dimples, for example, singing a terrible number called I'm Only A Girl complete with really bad dancing. On the musical side of things, the Shadows styled instrumental theme tune (Harold Geller) fits in better with what the film aspires to be. Charles Saunders' direction, while not exactly inspiring, is pacy and efficient and Jimmy Harvey's documentary style b/w cinematography lends the sets such as the Adam and Eve club's seedy interior and the terraced house where Collins lives including its kitchen with its awful fried breakfasts a genuine sense of authenticity. Despite its attempts to be gritty and hard hitting falling flat, we can enjoy Jungle Street (aka Jungle Street Girls) as an enjoyable film of its period - the early sixties - that always looked great in these films and a nostalgic reminder of a genteel era of British movie making that has long since gone. Fans of The Man From UNCLE I am sure will want to check this out for an early David McCallam role even if it is a part in which he looks miscast somewhat.

JUNGLE STREET is a low rent British crime film from prolific director Charles Saunders. It has a fair share of problems but nonetheless works thanks to some strong acting from the leads and the narrative itself, which is a fun mish-mash of timely themes and the occasional bit of suspense.The film incorporates some of the burgeoning 'kitchen sink' drama genre into its running time in its depiction of the home life of youthful tearaway David McCallum, a man who despises his family and his whole class and wants to make something better for himself. This means turning to crime to make ends meet, and you can guess how that ends up. Like a lot of low budget British crime films, much of the action centres around a nightclub, or rather a strip club in this instance.This is where much of the padding comes into it. The first half of the film in particular is full of tame striptease sequences which show no nudity but are nonetheless quite racy at times. They go on forever and they parade many attractive actresses around which is no bad thing really, particularly when the chief stripper is the young and lovely Jill Ireland, a really arresting presence here.The plot is further complicated by police investigation and the release from jail of a seasoned criminal, played with relish by Kenneth Cope. Cope and McCallum have some good scenes together which makes the story work. There's an inevitable heist sequence which is well directed and an effective climax. No classic, but more than watchable for what it is.

This film is mainly set in a striptease club where none of the girls actually take off more than a pair of shoes.All rather tame.Having already killed a man in a street robbery Mccallum teams up with Cope ,just out of jail to rob the club.Mccallum wants all the money for himself and lays out Cope.Rather a silly thing to do bearing in mind that Cope had previously covered up Mccallum's involvement in a prior robbery.The caretaker raises the alarm.Mccallum takes Ireland hostage in her flat.A tailor in the next door office tries to disarm him and is shot and killed.Mccallum is caught by the police and takes him off for his date with the hangman.All rather poverty stricken,padded out with some truly hopeless acts at the club.I wonder if there was a "continental"version of this film.Might have been more interesting.

This is a just watchable crime film starring the then husband and wife team, David McCallum and Jill Ireland. Ireland is a stripper in a low-rent peeler bar in London. McCallum is the club's go-fer who has eyes for Ireland. Needing some extra cash to try and impress Ireland he pulls a roll job in a dark alley. However, he was a bit heavy with the violence and the victim dies. One of the clubs members, Brian Weske, puts two and two together and does a bit of blackmail. McCallum now decides he needs a big score to get out from under the blackmail. He enlists the help of just released convict, Ken Cope. They plan to hit the safe after a good weekend. Needless to say everything falls to pieces and McCallum ends up killing another man before the cops grab him. Film needed to lose 10-15 minutes of dead time in-order to quicken up the pace. Ireland does a nice bit as the stripper with a less than golden heart. Not good, but by no means a total waste of time.