In the Nick | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ken Hughes |
Screenplay by | Ken Hughes |
Based on | a story by Frank Norman |
Produced by | Harold Huth |
Starring | Anthony Newley Anne Aubrey Bernie Winters James Booth |
Cinematography | Ted Moore |
Edited by | Geoffrey Foot |
Music by | Ron Goodwin Lionel Bart (songs) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 109 minutes [1] |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
In the Nick is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Anthony Newley, Anne Aubrey, Bernie Winters, James Booth and Harry Andrews. [2] A gang of incompetent criminals are placed in a special type of new prison.
A progressive experimental prison without bars is run by young psychiatrist Dr. Newcombe and harsh but fair Chief Officer Williams. Four hardened criminals, the Spider Gang, arrive at this minimum security prison, the leader of whom is Spider Kelly. Dr. Newcombe has his work cut out trying to reform the boys and enlists the aid of Spider's girlfriend Doll, who, to Spider's anger, is now working as a stripper in Soho. Newcombe seems to be straightening Spider out, while Spider is in turn sorting out a rival imprisoned gang, led by Ted Ross), who hold the monopoly in smuggled cigarettes.
Many of the same team had just made Jazz Boat (1960) also directed by Hughes. [4]
Featured song "Must Be" was written by Lionel Bart. [5]
The Monthly Film Bulletin noted "A sequel to Jazz Boat [1960], with the same leading characters and production team, In the Nick is cast very much in the same mould – easy-going mixture of farce and fantasy, loose and ingenuous scripting, excellent (if bizarre) team-playing. James Booth stands out for his genuinely observed portrait of Spider, Bernie Winters appears to be one of those rare comedians who can keep his moronic style of clowning free from offensiveness, and Niall MacGinnis (Governor), Harry Andrews (Chief Officer) and Ian Hendry (rival mobsters) all catch the eye. Anthony Newley is rather at sea as a psychiatrist, but plays with a likable modesty and warmth, and an improved Anne Aubrey discretely burlesques Jayne Mansfield. There is much in this film that is conventionally weak and structurally uneven, yet it gets closer to contemporary feeling than numerous more ambitious comedies. The dialogue, particularly, strikes an authentic note, and Ken Hughes' debt to Frank Norman, who wrote the original story, seems considerable." [6]
TV Guide noted, "Though there are some genuinely funny moments in the film, Newley is miscast as the compassionate psychologist. Though relatively straightforward for its first half, the plot becomes convoluted and the motivations are twisted in the second half." [5]
Don't Say a Word is a 2001 American psychological thriller film starring Michael Douglas, Brittany Murphy and Sean Bean based on the novel Don't Say a Word by Andrew Klavan. It was directed by Gary Fleder and written by Anthony Peckham and Patrick Smith Kelly. It was released on September 28, 2001, receiving negative reviews from critics and grossing $100 million against its $50 million budget.
Anthony Newley was an English actor, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest leading men", from 1959 to 1962 he scored a dozen entries on the UK Top 40 chart, including two number one hits. Newley won the 1963 Grammy Award for Song of the Year for "What Kind of Fool Am I?", sung by Sammy Davis Jr., and wrote "Feeling Good", which became a signature hit for Nina Simone. His songs have been sung by a wide variety of singers including Fiona Apple, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey.
David Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English actor and director. He is best remembered for his roles in British films and television programmes of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, particularly his lead roles as a trendy fashion photographer in the hugely successful avant-garde mystery film Blowup (1966), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and as a jazz pianist in Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975). Early in his career, Hemmings was a boy soprano appearing in operatic roles. In 1967, he co-founded the Hemdale Film Corporation. From the late 1970s on, he worked mainly as a character actor and occasionally as director.
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Jazz Boat is a 1960 British black-and-white musical comedy film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Anthony Newley, Anne Aubrey, Lionel Jeffries and big band leader Ted Heath and his orchestra. It was based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Rex Rienits.
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