Hell Is a City - DaaVeeDee

Hell Is a City (DVD) (*)

$23.99

Screened, competed or awarded at:
BAFTA Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
92 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Alternative Footage
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1960 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Val Guest

Written By:
Val Guest
Maurice Procter

Actors:
Stanley Baker ..... Insp. Harry Martineau
John Crawford ..... Don Starling
Donald Pleasence ..... Gus Hawkins
Maxine Audley ..... Julia Martineau
Billie Whitelaw ..... Chloe Hawkins
Joseph Tomelty ..... Furnisher Steele
George A. Cooper ..... Doug Savage
Geoffrey Frederick ..... Devery
Vanda Godsell ..... Lucky Lusk
Charles Houston ..... Clogger Roach
Joby Blanshard ..... Tawny Jakes
Charles Morgan ..... Laurie Lovett
Peter Madden ..... Bert Darwin
Dickie Owen ..... Bragg
Lois Daine ..... Cecily Wainwright

Synopsis:

A 1960's Hammer films production, Hell Is A City is a taut, fast-paced thriller set against the grimy back streets and rain-streaked bright lights of Manchester. Stanley Baker (The Cruel Sea) stars as a tough, dedicated police inspector on the trail of a man on the run - a man who he had put away for 14 years for robbery - and who will now be sent to the gallows for murder! Clubbing a warder to death as he broke out of jail, the inspector knows now he'll stop at nothing...

Inspector Harry Martineau (Steve Baker), a hard-nosed detective stationed in Manchester England, feels that an escaped thief Don Starling (John Crawford) is going to return to town to retrieve a cache of stolen jewels that he hid before he was convicted. Martineau has domestic troubles as he and his wife Julia Martineau (Maxine Audley) bicker about his role as a policeman and their childless marriage. The escaped criminal Starling arrives in town and immediately forms a gang to rob a bookmaker Gus Hawkins (Donald Pleasance), of what they think will be the minimal amount of money to get the crook out of town but what they steal is a large amount of money marked with a green ink by the bank to prevent theft. Starling accidentally kills a young girl during the robbery and while dumping the body at a deserted location the gang is spotted and Martineau instinctively knowing who is responsible, takes steps to track down as much information as he can, in many instances only steps behind the crook. On the run Starling starts going to as many places as he can for refuge, at one point hiding in the attic of the bookmaker he robbed Gus Hawkins, threatening his philandering wife Chloe (Billie Whitelaw). Starling manages to knock Hawkins unconscious sending him to the hospital and Martineau, following up on his hunch, figures out the truth and squeezes more information from Hawkins wife Chloe. At a large coin-flipping gambling game, where some of the tainted money exchanges hands, Martineau catches up with the accomplices in the robbery and gets closer to the murderer. When Starling recovers the cache of stolen jewels from a furniture dealer he confronts a young girl Silver Steele (Sarah Branch) and draws the attention of the neighborhood and Martineau who pursues the thief to a final showdown on the rooftops above Manchester.

Committed but seen-it-all police inspector Martineau rightly guesses that after a violent jailbreak a local criminal will head home to Manchester to pick up the spoils from his last job. Martineau is soon investigating a murder during a street robbery which seems to lead back to the same villain. Concentrating on the case and using his local contacts to try and track the gang down, he is aware he is not keeping his own personal life together as well as he might.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 14 March, 2013.

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