The Six Men (1951)

So much average

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

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

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Peter Bull's various memoirs are well worth tracking down,in particular the above - titled which covers the era when "The six men" was shot. Not much sign of the outburst of artistic creativity(Dome of Discovery,The Skylon,Festival Hall etc) that occurred during the contemporary "Festival Of Britain" is on show in this film unfortunately. It's dark and gloomy post - war England that comes through. Seedy clubs,obligatory exiled Chicago gangster,shoulder pads,Cagney hats and "You dirty rat...!"is the limit of the insults thrown. Public School coppers range from the Silly Ass to the deadly determined. "The six men" has very little to do with real life and looks as if it was made for one and ninepence on a cloudy Thursday morning. And the pianist in the bar is the worst I ever remember hearing,live or dead.His efforts at boogie woogie defy belief. The story is absolutely silly,the acting perfunctory,and yet absurdly,I rather enjoyed it. It has survived 65 years or more and remains as an exemplar of what the cheapo end of the British Cinema Industry was knocking out in large numbers to an uncritical public smoking their "Weights" and listening to "Dick Barton - Special Agent" on their wireless.

THE SIX MEN is a low rent British crime film that suffers from a lack of incident and characters that you can't really warm to. It does benefit from an atypical storyline in which the six members of a criminal gang are the protagonists and the film follows their misadventures as they find themselves captured and carted off to jail one by one.There's some mild suspense raised as to who the mysterious figure is who is orchestrating the arrests, but to be fair it's never really that gripping and you could turn this off ten minutes before the end and be forever none the wiser without too much bother (the eventual resolution is hurried and makes you shrug your shoulders in response). THE SIX MEN is the kind of film to keep you watching but it's something you'll forget about too shortly afterwards. The cast is undistinguished and lacks the usual familiar faces from the era. The only bits I really enjoyed were the goofy, randomly-inserted scenes of humour involving the bumbling detective who gets his stick trapped in the grill and suffers other indignities as the running time goes on.

This is a very engaging and entertaining crime film.Peter Bull is the leader of a gang of thieves who have inflicted a spate of robberies on London,which the police seem helpless to stop.Then all of a sudden the tables are turned.So that one by one the criminals are caught.The common thread is that they are all set up for their downfall by a mysterious person.All of them are arrested for different crimes,such as passing off forged notes that they are encouraged to steal.By the time it gets down to two they each think it's the other but of course it's not.The mole is rather unlikely,but that is just a small quibble.Definitely more than just a tonne filler.

The movie title refers to a gang of six criminals that Scotland Yard is unable to pin a charge against even though they are positive of the identities.Throughout the film the gang members are, one by one, set up and framed with a charge that ensures a decent jail term – who is pulling the strings for this to occur? It seems the only link is the 'femme' Christina, but how and why this would be an answer is not clear until the final few minutes when the whole mystery is unraveled.This is a 'B' movie time waster and will not appear in any desirable list. The actors try hard and for the most part do very well with the available material. It is certainly worth an hour of your time, particularly if you enjoy the British B movie Crime / Drama genre.7 /10 from me