Crossroads to Crime

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Crossroads to Crime
A black-and-white shot of a road filled with cars and buses, in front of background buildings, has the title "Crossroads to Crime" superimposed in the centre

Original title
Directed by Gerry Anderson
Produced by Gerry Anderson
Written by Alun Falconer
Starring Anthony Oliver
Ferdy Mayne
George Murcell
Arthur Rigby
Miriam Karlin
David Graham
Music by Barry Gray
Cinematography John Read
Editing by David Elliott
Studio AP Films
Distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated
Release dates November 1960
Running time 57 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Budget £16,250

Crossroads to Crime is a 1960 British crime film, the first and only to be directed by television producer Gerry Anderson, and also the only feature-length film to be made by his production company, AP Films. Known for Thunderbirds and his other "Supermarionation" TV series of the 1950s and 1960s, which were mostly science fiction and featured marionette puppet characters, Anderson accepted an offer from distributors Anglo-Amalgamated to shoot a one-hour, low-budget B film when no TV network could be found to distribute Supercar. The first of Anderson's productions to use live actors, Crossroads to Crime is about the investigations of a police constable (Anthony Oliver) who, working undercover and without the support of his colleagues, confronts and brings down a gang of vehicle hi-jackers.

Filmed mainly on location in England from May to June 1960, the film's cast includes a number actors who would appear in later Anderson productions. The musical score was composed by Barry Gray, who – along with other members of the production staff, such as director of photography John Read and editor David Elliott – would also continue his association with Anderson. A commercial disappointment, Crossroads to Crime has attracted mostly negative critical opinion since its release in November 1960. Although credited by some as a fair "cops and robbers"-style thriller,[1] criticism has been directed at its standard of scripting and editing,[2][3] its plainness of set design and its low budget.[2] The film has aired at least once on British TV since the end of its brief theatrical run,[1] and was released on DVD in 2013.[4][5]

Plot

Police Constable Don Ross (Anthony Oliver) discovers a gang of lorry hi-jackers operating from the back of a transport café. Following an unsuccessful pursuit of a car containing the hostage café owner, Connie Williams (Miriam Karlin), Sergeant Pearson (Arthur Rigby) scoffs at Ross's concerns that the criminals are responsible for a series of vehicle thefts along the A1 road. Having decided to conduct his own private investigation, Ross approaches gang member Diamond (George Murcell) and accepts bribes from him in exchange for his silence.

Ross continues to collect incriminating evidence while the hi-jackers intercept a £10,000 shipment of cigarettes at the café. As the gang make preparations for a final raid – their prize being a shipment of nickel ingots worth £20,000 – Ross himself joins the operation in the hope of toppling the leader, Miles (Ferdy Mayne). Having uncovered the truth behind Ross's actions, Diamond threatens him with a gun. Ross is saved when fellow gang member Johnny (David Graham) kills Diamond and reveals himself to be another undercover police officer who has successfully infiltrated the gang.[6]

Production

Following the success of Four Feather Falls, in 1960 Gerry Anderson approached Anglo-Amalgamated for work after broadcaster Granada Television rejected his plans for a new Supermarionation television series, which would ultimately become Supercar.[7] Known for distributing films such as the Carry On series,[8] Anglo-Amalgamated had helped to commission Four Feather Falls after responding positively to its pilot episode.[9] It often produced low-budget B films with short running times to increase the amount of British-made content in its output.[8] Desperate for a project from Anglo-Amalgamated's founders Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy, and keen to establish himself as a film director, Anderson agreed to make such a title on a low budget of £16,250 and without a contract.[8][10] Alun Falconer, writer of the Peter Sellers thriller Never Let Go and the crime drama The Unstoppable Man, wrote the script.[8] As an in-joke, Four Feather Falls is referenced in the film's dialogue when lorry drivers at Connie's café suggest a tune from the TV series' soundtrack as the next record to play on the jukebox.[11]

Casting

Supporting cast[10]
ActorCharacterActorCharacter
Geoffrey DentonButlerArthur RigbySergeant Pearson
Peter DiamondEscort DriverDavid SaleYoung Man 1
Patricia HeneghanJoan RossTerry SaleYoung Man 2
William KerwinMartinBill SawyerLorry Driver
Victor MaddernLenDonald TandyBasher
Harry TowbPaddyJ. Mark RobertsPhillips

Having been impressed by his performance in a West End production of the Agatha Christie murder mystery The Mousetrap, Anderson cast actor Anthony Oliver in the leading role of Police Constable Don Ross.[8] David Graham, who appears as undercover agent Johnny, had starred in a 1957 episode of the television series Martin Kane, Private Investigator (also known as The New Adventures of Martin Kane) that Anderson had directed.[10] A number of the cast contributed to later Anderson productions: George Murcell (Diamond) provided the voices of Professor Popkiss and Masterspy in the first series of Supercar, while Graham voiced various characters in Stingray and Thunderbirds.

Anderson remembers that Ferdy Mayne (Miles) occasionally misinterpreted the script.[11] A scene set at the café featuring the characters of Oliver and Miriam Karlin (Connie Williams) was re-mounted more than once when Karlin repeatedly "upstaged" Oliver, changing the arrangement of the scene with the result that the other actor's face was hidden from the camera.[11] Terence Brook, who was hired after being noted for his "tough-guy" appearance in a Strand cigarettes advertisement, was doubled by editor and second unit director David Elliott for a stunt sequence in which gang member Harry jumps off the back of a lorry.[12]

Filming

Shooting was conducted in and around Slough, Buckinghamshire and Maidenhead, Berkshire over five weeks from May to June 1960.[2][7] The location filming in Slough included the AP Films Studio itself (which doubled as the gang's warehouse), a café on the other side of the road from the studio (as the main hideout), the woodland of Burnham Beeches[2][12] and various points along the A4 road.[10] Halliford Studios in Shepperton, Surrey was also used for brief filming.[8] On one occasion, when production had fallen behind schedule and a night shoot inside the café had stretched into the morning, the crew attached black drapes to the windows to block out the sunlight and allow the filming to finish.[2] A number of production staff – including Elliott and John Read, the director of photography – would continue to be employed by AP Films. Anderson's future wife, Sylvia, performed the uncredited role of continuity supervisor under her maiden name, Thamm.[1] After the end of filming, Anderson and his first wife divorced and he was re-married to Sylvia.[1]

Post-production

Composer Barry Gray recorded his musical score in six hours[13] on 21 June 1960.[10][11] The opening titles music was recycled for the Supercar episode "The White Line", the Fireball XL5 episode "The Robot Freighter Mystery" and the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode "Manhunt",[10] and was released on the Fanderson soundtrack sampler International Concerto and Other Classic Themes in 2005. In a biography of Gray, it is suggested that the instrumental character of the soundtrack is emulated in later Anderson TV series, such as Thunderbirds.[14] To secure a U certificate from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), Elliott dubbed over expletives such as "bloody" (which was replaced by the milder "ruddy").[11] To make the film more accessible to American audiences, references to "quid" (a British slang term for the pound sterling) were also changed during post-production.[11] The BBFC certified the film U on 26 July 1960.[10]

Distribution

The tagline for the November 1960 theatrical release of Crossroads to Crime was "£20,000 the Prize and Death the Price!"[1] During the 1960s, the film was incorporated into the B film series Edgar Wallace Mysteries (also distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated) and re-edited with new opening titles.[4][5] The film has been transmitted at least once on British TV since the 1960s.[1] A print of the film is owned by the British Film Institute (BFI), which screened it at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television's Pictureville Cinema, Bradford in 1997 to commemorate Anderson's career in TV and film-making.[1]

Crossroads to Crime was not released in any home entertainment format until 2013, when a Region 2 DVD was issued by Network Distributing.[4][5] The transfer from which the DVD was developed contains the revised, "Edgar Wallace Presents" opening titles; however, the originals are included as a special feature.[4][5] Additionally, the release contains a behind-the-scenes film, Remembering Crossroads to Crime, which features interviews with producer and production assistant Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and editor David Elliott.[4][5] The BBFC has re-classified the film PG for "moderate violence".[15]

Reception

When the film finished and the lights came up, there was complete silence. Then Nat Cohen turned round slowly and said, "Well, I've seen worse." In retrospect, I can smile about it. But whenever I work on a production I give it my all in terms of energy and hours spent trying to get it right. Crossroads to Crime was no exception. So at the time I felt terrible about it not being up to the standard I'd hoped it would be.

“
”
Gerry Anderson (1996)[16] remembering the response to the film at its test screening

Besides a poor commercial showing at the box office in 1960, critical reception to Crossroads to Crime has remained consistently negative.[11] Anderson once named it "possibly the worst film ever made",[1] while Elliott considers it "awful".[3] Similarly unimpressed, Cohen and Levy offered Anderson no further commissions for Anglo-Amalgamated.[7] During the promotional campaign for Thunderbirds Are Go, which was made by AP Films' successor company Century 21 and released in 1966, Sylvia Anderson said of the earlier film, "The less said about it, the better".[17] She has since stated that it "hardly ranks as one of our best efforts".[18] A contemporary review in Monthly Film Bulletin was less downbeat, commenting, "Quick off the mark, this modest little thriller soon settles down into a routine 'cops and robbers' format, efficient if not always too convincing."[1] Stronger praise came in an October 1960 issue of Kine Weekly, which commended Crossroads to Crime for being "refreshingly free from pretence" and added, "The film's moral is lofty, its tender domestic asides encourage feminine interest, and the climax is a corker."[11]

Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn, writers of Anderson's official biography, describe Mayne as the film's "saving grace"[2] but consider Gray's music overbearing and unsuited to the subject matter, commenting, "Its innovative combination of booming brass and twangy electric guitar was possibly intended to evoke the contemporary sounds of Stanley Black or John Barry, but fell wide of the mark on both counts."[11] Crossroads to Crime is summed up as "irredeemably compromised by its prosaic settings, convoluted screenplay and minuscule budget".[2] Stephen La Rivière, writer of Filmed in Supermarionation: A History of the Future, states that it is "remembered with dread", adding that the "wafer-thin plot" is a "tedious affair" before proceeding to criticise the editing for leaving a finished version that is "more than a little rough around the edges".[3] He suggests that what little attention Crossroads to Crime receives is attributable to the fact that the Andersons would go on to produce the highly successful Thunderbirds.[12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Feature Film Productions: Crossroads to Crime". fanderson.org.uk. Archived from the original on 21 February 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2010. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Archer and Hearn, p. 56.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 La Rivière, p. 47.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Anderson, Jamie (16 August 2013). "Crossroads to Crime DVD Release". gerryanderson.co.uk. Anderson Entertainment. Retrieved 8 September 2013. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Rogers, Steve (2013). "Network On Air DVD Review". networkonair.com. Network Distributing. Retrieved 8 September 2013. 
  6. ↑ Crossroads to Crime was not released on home video until 2013. The plot summary that appears in this article is referenced to The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (Bentley, p. 301) and What Made Thunderbirds Go! The Authorised Biography of Gerry Anderson (Archer and Hearn, p. 56).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Bentley, Chris (2001). The Complete Book of Captain Scarlet. London: Carlton Books. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-84222-405-2. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Archer and Hearn, p. 55.
  9. ↑ Archer and Hearn, p. 50.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4 ed.). London: Reynolds and Hearn. p. 301. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 Archer and Hearn, p. 57.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 La Rivière, p. 48.
  13. ↑ de Klerk, Theo (25 December 2003). "Complete Studio-Recording List of Barry Gray". tvcentury21.com. Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2010. 
  14. ↑ Titterton, Ralph; Ford, Cathy; Bentley, Chris; Gray, Barry. "Barry Gray Biography" (PDF). lampmusic.co.uk. Archived from the original on 22 July 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2010. 
  15. ↑ "BBFC Entry". BBFC. 8 July 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2013. 
  16. ↑ Archer, Simon; Nicholls, Stan (1996). Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Biography. London: Legend Books. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-09-922442-6. 
  17. ↑ La Rivière, p. 187.
  18. ↑ Anderson, Sylvia (2007). My Fab Years! Sylvia Anderson. Neshannock, Pennsylvania: Hermes Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-932563-91-7. 
Bibliography
  • Archer, Simon; Hearn, Marcus (2002). What Made Thunderbirds Go! The Authorised Biography of Gerry Anderson. London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-53481-5. 
  • La Rivière, Stephen (2009). Filmed in Supermarionation: A History of the Future. Neshannock, Pennsylvania: Hermes Press. ISBN 978-1-932563-23-8. 

External links

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