The trail leads nowhere
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The trail leads nowhere |
| Original title | The Criminal |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Joseph Losey |
| script | Alun Owen |
| production | Jack Greenwood |
| music | Johnny Dankworth |
| camera | Robert Krasker |
| cut | Reginald Mills |
| occupation | |
| |
The Trail leads nowhere is a British crime drama from 1960 directed by Joseph Losey with Stanley Baker in the lead role.
action
Johnny Bannion is serving a long sentence in the small English town of Reading for a robbery he and his gang committed on a racecourse. The roughly £ 40,000 from the coup has since disappeared. Bannion, then betrayed to the police by his depraved, blonde ex-girlfriend Maggie because of his new lover Suzanne, is a "tough dog", the epitome of an ice-cold, unscrupulous gangster. He is due to be released soon, but he has learned nothing from his stay in prison. Still behind bars, where he had to subordinate himself to the uncrowned king of the crooks of this prison, Frank Saffron, and was exposed to the sadisms of Supervisor Barrows, Bannion has already developed a plan for his next coup. He was given the idea for the latest break from a fellow prisoner who wants to be accepted into the gang. After the end of the sentence, the opaque gang member Mike Carter waits in front of the prison gates and picks up Bannion.
While the gang members are working out the new plan, one of Bannion's cronies whistles again to the police. Then Johnny Bannion goes behind bars one more time. There he found out a little later that his lover Suzanne had been kidnapped. Finally it becomes clear to him that the slippery Carter, a lacquered villain with no morals or conscience, equipped with a cigarette holder and sometimes strutting around in a camel hair coat, is the traitor in his own ranks. Carter wants to remove Bannion and inherit him as the new gang leader. He kidnapped Suzanne in order to put Bannion under pressure. The gang leader should finally reveal where the lost loot from the last attack is hidden. Carter initiates the rescue of Bannion in order to finally get to the loot. Finally only he and Bannion with Suzanne are left. With the revolver at the ready, he forces the ex-con to drive to the place where he buried the money. There it comes to a bloody showdown in which Carter shoots Bannion and Suzanne freezing.
Production notes
The trail leads nowhere was made in the winter of 1959/60 on several locations in and around London. The premiere of the film was on September 13, 1960, the German premiere on March 17, 1961.
Scott MacGregor designed the buildings . Patrick Magee made his film debut here. Cleo Laine sang the song "A Thieving Boy" at the beginning and the end of the film.
The cost of production was about £ 200,000.
criticism
In the lexicon of the international film it says: "Hard gangster film that heroizes the professional criminal and portrays the criminal world as a society with its own laws, although only the prison scenes are able to convince."
"After the murder story" The Deadly Trap ", he delivered a sobering insight into the inner workings of a gang of gangsters and the psyche of their ice-cold and vengeful boss (Stanley Baker) with the gripping, desperate and dreary drama" The trail leads to nowhere "."
The Movie & Video Guide wrote: "More than just a crime drama, it is a story of how greed and lust for money can lead to alienation and the destruction of the mind."
Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: "Mercilessly dark tale of prison life, with a few sensational decorations."
Web links
- The trail leads to nowhere in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The trail leads nowhere. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 17, 2015 .
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 255
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 232