Crossroads to Crime

Crossroads to Crime is a 1960 British crime film produced and directed by Gerry Anderson and distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated (AA). Starring Anthony Oliver, George Murcell, Miriam Karlin, David Graham and Ferdy Mayne, Crossroads to Crime is about a police constable who works undercover to bring down a gang of lorry hi-jackers. Made as a B movie by Anderson's production company AP Films (APF), which made children's puppet television series, it was APF's first film production as well as its first production with live actors. It was also the only film that Anderson directed.

Plot
While on the beat, Police Constable Don Ross (Anthony Oliver) discovers a gang of lorry hi-jackers operating from the back of a transport café. Gang members Diamond and Johnny (George Murcell and David Graham) drive away in a car with the café owner, Connie Williams (Miriam Karlin), held hostage in the back seat. Ross tries to stop the car by jumping onto its side but is thrown to the ground and suffers a head injury. Pretending to be innocent passers-by, Diamond and Johnny take Ross home. Williams is brought before the hi-jackers' affluent ringleader, Miles (Ferdy Mayne), who warns her not to betray them to the authorities.

Despite evidence linking the gang to a spate of vehicle thefts along the A1 road, Ross is unable to persuade his superior, Sergeant Pearson (Arthur Rigby), to investigate the café. He therefore takes matters into his own hands, confronting Diamond with what he knows and forcing the gangster to bribe him in exchange for his silence. Learning of Ross' private investigation, Pearson threatens him with dismissal, placing strain on Ross's relationship with his wife Joan (Patricia Heneghan). Nevertheless, Ross continues to gather evidence as the hi-jackers capture a shipment of cigarettes.

As the gang prepare to make one last raid – this time, targeting a £20,000 haul of nickel ingots – Ross joins the operation in a bid to expose and topple Miles. Discovering Ross's treachery, Diamond pulls a gun on the officer and chases him through the café cellars. He wounds and eventually corners Ross only to be shot dead by Johnny, who is revealed to be an undercover detective. Johnny tell Ross that the authorities know Miles' location and that soon the whole gang will be arrested. Ross returns to his life as an ordinary beat constable.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) For a 54 minute film, there is only 55 seconds of action in it's 54 minute runtime.
 * 2) Ferdy Mayne and Anthony Oliver do not give good performances.
 * 3) The pacing is incredibly slow.
 * 4) Not very good direction from Gerry Anderson.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Decent score by Barry Gray.
 * 2) George Murcell steals the show as Diamond.

Reception
Crossroads to Crime was a box office failure and critical response to the film has been mostly negative. Anderson once described it as "possibly the worst film ever made", while Elliott has called it "awful". Cohen and Levy were also unimpressed and did not give Anderson any more work. While promoting Thunderbirds Are Go in 1966, Sylvia Anderson said of Crossroads to Crime, "The less said about it, the better"; in her autobiography, she noted that it "hardly ranks as one of our best efforts".

In an interview, Graham recalled seeing the film at a London cinema and hearing the reaction of an audience member: "I went to this cinema in Kilburn and I sat squirming through this film... It was so bad it became a classic, possibly! As I got up to go a voice behind me said, 'What a fucking awful picture!'" A contemporary review in Monthly Film Bulletin was more upbeat: "Quick off the mark, this modest little thriller soon settles down into a routine 'cops and robbers' format, efficient if not always too convincing." Stronger praise came in an October 1960 issue of Kine Weekly, which commended Crossroads to Crime for being "refreshingly free from pretence". The review added: "The film's moral is lofty, its tender domestic asides encourage feminine interest, and the climax is a corker."

Gerry Anderson biographers Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn consider Gray's score overbearing and ill-suited to the subject matter, stating that 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." They regard Mayne as a "saving grace" but judge the film to be "irredeemably compromised by its prosaic settings, convoluted screenplay and minuscule budget". Hearn describes Anderson's direction as "clumsy" and sums up Crossroads to Crime as "one of the most unappealing B movies of its era". Stephen La Rivière writes that the film is "remembered with dread", calling the plot both "wafer-thin" and "tedious" and the overall production "more than a little rough around the edges". He argues that Crossroads to Crime is only remembered because of the success of Thunderbirds.

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