Wide Boy (1952) User Reviews

Much in little

[Igenlode Wordsmith · 7/10 · 22 December 2009]

This is a good example of how to do a lot with relatively little, in this story of a London spiv who makes a bid for the big time and ends up getting in over his head. There are inevitable echoes with "Night and the City", but this low-budget Merton Park Studios production is on a much smaller scale and rarely aims beyond its reach.

There is some fine acting by Sydney Tafler as the oleaginous Benny, and by Susan Shaw and Melissa Stribling as the central female characters, Molly and Caroline, who finally come face to face by coincidence in a meeting that gives Caroline her chance. Ronald Howard is billed rather more prominently than I felt his part actually justified; nominally the chief detective, he has in fact very little to do.

There are limited interior sets, but some clever and effective shots (was that cat specifically staged, or did it just wander up to actor Colin Tapley at an appropriate moment?) within the resources available. Tension is genuine during many of the scenes, and although the protagonist behaves badly more or less from start to finish we end up feeling for him as he is trapped and apparently betrayed.

As with tonight's double-bill companion "To the Public Danger", however, the film suffers in its final moments from what appears to be a desire to insert an explicit public-information moral into the dialogue in case the audience had failed to get it from the story alone: unfortunately it's not made terribly clear just why Benny buys the gun in the first place. (Moral support, presumably?)

Good UK low renter!

[gordonl56 · 8/10 · 4 January 2009]

Wide boy is a British term for a man who lives by his wits, wheeling and dealing.

The always oily Sydney Tafler plays a low rent crook who survives by selling black-market nylons. His girl, Susan Shaw, is always giving him a hard time about his lack of cash. She is forever peppering him with lines like, "Why can't you ever take me somewhere nice"! Tafler finally breaks down and takes Shaw to an upscale bar. He only has enough money for a single drink each. He sees a couple, Colin Tapley and Melissa Stirbling having a heated discussion at the bar. Tafler wanders over and lifts the woman's wallet while her attention is otherwise diverted. Tafler grabs up Shaw and out they go. Back at his flat, Tafler goes through the wallet to see what he has scored. It contains a nice wad of bills and a letter. The letter, a love note, is written to Stribling from her married lover, Tapley. Tapley is a famous surgeon who just happens to be up for a Knighthood. The old light bulb goes off as Tafler sees the solution to his cash flow problems. A spot of blackmail seems in order. He contacts the pair and offers to return the letter for a couple of hundred pounds. With Tapley's forthcoming Knighthood at stake, a scandal is the last thing he wants. Tapley agrees to the exchange. Tafler knows a good scam when he sees it and pulls a fast one during the exchange. He slips Tapley an envelope with a fake note and keeps the real letter. He is in the dough! Not being the swiftest lad, he quickly runs through the coin. A new suit, pays up the rent and a nice bit of jewelry for Shaw make short work of the cash. It is time to contact Tapley for another "loan". This time the exchange goes bad and Tapley is killed. Now Tafler is on the run and out of his element. His friends vanish and the police close in. An escape attempt through a rail yard ends with Tafler under the wheels of a train.

This is a good looking low renter with great camera-work and a tight story.

Tafler, who made a career out of playing these types, was also in UNEASY TERMS, ONCE A SINNER, ASSASSIN FOR HIRE, THE SCARLET THREAD, MYSTERY JUNCTION, THE VENETIAN BIRD, OPERATION DIPLOMAT, THE GLASS CAGE, DIAL 999, THE LONG ARM and THE BANK RAIDERS. Susan Shaw was in MY BROTHER'S KEEPER, IT ONLY RAINS ON SUNDAYS, WATERFRONT, POOL OF London, THE WOMAN IN QUESTION, THE GOOD DIE YOUNG and THE DIPLOMATIC CORPSE. The rest of the cast includes Leslie Howard's son, Ron, Gerald Case and Laidman Browne.

The director was Ken Hughes. Hughes work includes, BLACK 13, HEATWAVE, THE BRAIN MACHINE, CASE OF THE RED MONKEY, CONFESSION, JOE MACBETH, WICKED AS THEY COME, THE LONG HAUL and THE SMALL WORLD OF SAMMY LEE. The d of p was Josef Amber who worked on CASE OF THE RED MONKEY, BRAIN MACHINE and THE CASE OF CHARLES PEACE.

An enjoyable, quick paced time-waster that runs just over an hour.

On a greasy pole

[malcolmgsw · 7/10 · 6 April 2016]

Sidney Tafler plays the eponymous wide boy.It was another term for a spin.Private Walker in Dads Army is such a character.Living by their wits and dealing in the black market,which was still thriving at the time of this film due to rationing.Poor old Sidney is fed up with having his collar felt by the law for illegal street trading.Short of money his opportunistic theft of a wallet from a ladies bag yields more than money.Conveniently the lady has kept a compromising letter.This gives Sidney the chance to blackmail her famous surgeon lover.The surgeon pays the blackmail but doesn't get the letter.Sydney tries it again but ends up murdering the victim.Sydney falls to his death in a very tense ending.This is a great B film with fine performances.

Misleading tagline but a movie worth discovering

[XhcnoirX · 7/10 · 22 April 2016]

Sydney Tafler is a petty thief, a 'wide boy', who sells stolen nylon stockings to make ends meet. While taking his girl Susan Shaw to a classier place than their usual hang-outs, he spots a couple and thinks he has seen the man somewhere before. When the woman, Melissa Stribling, goes away for a bit, she leaves her handbag at the bar. Tafler manages to steal her wallet from it. Besides a decent amount of money, he also finds a letter in it, exposing the man, renowned and married doctor Colin Tapley, as having an affair with Stribling. Tafler decides to do a little blackmail. With deadly consequences...

The movie poster's tagline is 'Her lust for money stopped at nothing... even murder!' but this woman is nowhere to be seen in the movie. There is no femme fatale here. Tafler ('Assassin For Hire', 'The Lavender Hill Mob') however is one of those noir grifters like Widmark's Harry Fabian, living from day to day, always out for a quick buck trying to find the big pay day. He sees an opportunity for a lot of extra money, he takes it, and he's screwed. Tafler's great and convincing without over-playing it, he's just another guy trying to make a living, albeit a slightly illegal one. The rest of the cast is decent, but it's Tafler who carries this movie.

This was director Ken Hughes's first movie ('The House Across The Lake', 'Joe MacBeth') but he does really well here, the movie has a good pace and by focusing almost squarely on Tafler, it's easy to not worry too much about the more illogical actions of, especially, Tapley. Hughes and DoP Josef Ambor ('Wrong Number') even manage to make the night time scenes, in abandoned alleys and a pedestrian bridge across railroad tracks at Paddington Station, come alive with shadows, wet cobblestones and a lot of locomotive smoke. Really nicely done, and adding to the overall enjoyment of the movie. All in all, it's maybe a bit too straight-forward plot-wise to truly be a hidden gem, but well worth watching for Tafler and the cinematography. 7+/10

first movie directed by Ken Hughes

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 7/10 · 12 March 2019]

Benny is a little crook, not dangerous at all, but he doesn't get much money for dating his beautiful girlfriend. One night, he has the opportunity to get more money by blackmailing. But Benny is not a real crook, he isn't tough enough, and he finds a gun for protection for his blackmail operation. And the little crook becomes a coward.

Very interesting story, though already seen, well acted, competent direction with very cheap budget. Ken Hughes will direct more thrillers much more nervous like "Joe MacBeth" (fantastic Paul Douglas as MacBeth transferred in film noir) and "Wicked As They Come" (with sublim Arlene Dahl). Some other titles are to discover in Ken Hughes's filmography.

If ya can't do the time, don't do the crime!

[kalbimassey · 7/10 · 4 February 2023]

Despite having difficulty spelling the word 'nylon', small time crook, Sydney Tafler clearly has designs on becoming a big time operator. He successfully blackmails and consistently outwits eminent surgeon, Colin Tapley, cunningly staying one step ahead of the game, until the clash between Tafler's insatiable greed and Tapley's unshakeable resolve has tragic consequences.

From briefly enjoying the status of nattily dressed man about town, Tafler suddenly finds life passing over him. He's on the lam and desperately short of bread. Having once held all the aces, he now holds only the ignominious distinction of being the ace of jerks!

Meanwhile, the boys in blue are acting with their usual ferocious efficiency - calmly camped outside, allowing Tafler to escape through a stubbornly jamming window, until one bright spark belatedly suggests that it might be a good idea to break the door down.

It's hardly the most head scrambling movie you'll ever see. Low in both budget and ambition, nonetheless, this neat 'n' nifty, no-nonsense noir, ticks sufficient boxes to make it well worth searching out.

When you're frightened and you've got a gun in your pocket..

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 4 May 2022]

This intense British crime drama deals with a blackmailer Sydney Tafler who by chance finds the wallet of Susan Shaw and utilizes the presence of an incriminating letter to blackmail her and her boyfriend Colin Tapley, increasing the financial demand every time they talk. But Tapley doesn't take being a victim of a blackmailer lightly, and that results in a fatality, culminating in a Chase sequence over a bridge with a speeding train coming, witnessed by inspector Ronald Howard and Tafler's girlfriend, Melissa Stribling, taking a film into full steam ahead as it reaches a dramatic conclusion.

This film is as greedy as they come, dealing with the bent Mind of a petty criminal and how they operate, and what happens when they are trapped like a rabid dog. The photography is excellent, utilizing locations in a way that only British filmmakers could do at the time which keeps the audience intrigued. The performances are excellent although the dialogue and sometimes a bit weird in a low-down criminal sort of way. But this really showed what could be done with independent filmmakers and a great screenplay and a great production team behind the scenes. The ending certainly is nail biting, with a few great lines by one of the characters that pretty much sums up the whole mood of the film.

Study of a spiv

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 14 March 2023]

WIDE BOY is a fun little drama with touches of the thriller about it. The reliable Sydney Tafler stars in the title role as a 'spiv' who engages in further crime when he comes up with the perfect blackmail plot. Melissa Stribling, best known for her turn in Hammer's DRACULA, stars as one of the victims alongside a very good Colin Tapley. The film is slow and talky at times, which is no surprise given that it was made at Merton Park studios like so many potboilers of this era, but it has an interesting plot in which the stakes keep on getting raised until the eventful climax. Ronald Howard plays the detective.

Well, At Least It Looks Good

[cdlistguy · 5/10 · 28 April 2022]

Stylish low budget noir undone by a hopelessly routine script. Sydney Tafler plays a con man who gets in over his head. It's a relentlessly predictable story, but it does benefit by being nicely shot and thankfully short. There's even a TV-show style "moral" at the end of the film, so maybe you'll learn something. Or not. :-)

British B Noir Heaven

[TondaCoolwal · 9/10 · 18 August 2022]

I've mentioned elsewhwere how much I love these gritty post-war British second features. Usually set in dirty London streets complete with wet cobblestones and derelict buildings. Atmosphere! This one is no exception, starring the instantly recognisable Sydney Tafler who looked like a spiv even when not in character! The opening scene of him loading a suitcase with black-market nylons and donning his camel-hair overcoat, inevitably makes you think of Del Trotter.

He's Benny, a petty crook with a whining demanding girlfriend Molly. In a posh bar an opportunist theft of a wallet presents the chance to indulge in a little blackmail. Mannering, a prominent surgeon, is anxious to avoid scandal and readily pays up but, our boy gets greedy and comes back for more, foolishly bringing a gun to the meeting. Inevitably Mannering gets shot and the chase is on. By coincidence Mannering's girlfriend Caroline goes to the beauty parlour where Molly works. Molly admires Caroline's handbag and carelessly mentions seeing her with it in the bar where the wallet was lifted. With this information the police quickly close in. The final confrontation on a railway footbridge takes on a nightmarish aspect with the shrieks of passing trains and clouds of steam enveloping the protagonists. The demise of Benny is wreathed in the thick vapour, but we all know what happened, and he departs in a Daimler ambulance.

At one hour nineteen minutes this film certainly packs a lot in. A simple story but well told with plenty of period detail for geriatrics like me!

A solid bad boy vs the coppers 1950s effort.

[plan99 · 8/10 · 22 November 2022]

A typical 1950s crime film with a mixture of very posh folk and common people. This type of 1950s film always has a moral to end with, it usually being that crime does not pay, no sailing off into the sunset with a dolly bird in a yacht bought with ill gotten gains for a baddie in the 1950s. The initial £200 blackmail money is about £7,000 in 2022. Sydney is often a supporting actor so nice to see him in the lead for a change and he does a very good job, Sid is the go to man for those looking to cast a less menacing character than than that often played by Stanley Baker. Very well worth a watch.