A British crime drama; A story set in Manchester, England and on the West Pennine moors about a dangerous escaped convict who is going to return to Manchester to retrieve a cache of jewels, and a city police inspector who goes after him. This is a highly charged man-on-the-run escapade which holds the suspense throughout.
This film succeeds by humanising the police inspector, showing him to be an honest person displaying a sense of integrity. Stanley Baker gives a good performance as one who only gets satisfaction from his work and where his homelife suffers. Being mostly shot on location gives the story a realism and the look and feel of the film is gritty and realistic, showing dark edges, especially of an inspector's personal life, giving an extraordinarily attractive film noir look even if it is not strictly film noir in the sense of a distinct mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. The script is tight to the story and the rapid editing is absorbing without being unselfconscious and very suitable for a police procedural.
Review of Hell Is a City
