Johnny, You're Wanted | |
---|---|
Directed by | Vernon Sewell |
Written by | Frank Driscoll Michael Leighton |
Produced by | George Maynard |
Starring | John Slater Alfred Marks Garry Marsh |
Cinematography | Basil Emmott |
Edited by | Peter Rolfe Johnson |
Music by | Robert Sharples |
Distributed by | Anglo-Amalgamated |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Johnny, You're Wanted is a 1956 British crime second feature [1] film, directed by Vernon Sewell and starring John Slater and Alfred Marks. [2] It was written by Frank Driscoll and Michael Leighton based on the 1953 BBC television series of the same name which also starred Slater. The film features strongwoman Joan Rhodes performing her stage act.
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(December 2023) |
Johnny is a long-distance lorry driver returning to London from a provincial delivery, after having taken in a show by Joan Rhodes on the way. Late at night he stops to give a lift to an attractive female hitchhiker whose car has broken down and who is in a hurry to get to back to London. Later, Johnny pulls in to a transport café to make a telephone call and buy a coffee. When he returns to his truck, the woman is gone. Assuming that in her hurry she has picked up a lift with another driver, he goes on his way, and a few miles down the road is flagged down by another driver to help with a woman who has been found lying on the roadside. It turns out that the woman is Johnny's hitchhiker, and that she is dead.
Johnny goes to a vaudeville show where the assistant of Balsamo, a magician/horoscope reader/fortune teller, looks like the dead girl. Joan Rhodes is also on the bill. Johnny goes on the stage with Joan to assist her with her displays of strength. After this he speaks to Balsamo and tells him what happened. The girl worked for Balsamo for six months and was an Australian who came via Toronto. They go to the police and identify the body.
The police take Johnny to the scene where the dead girl was found and then to where he picked her up. It is revealed that the girl was murdered, later sad to be strangled. Johnny then heads off on another trip and agrees to collect some magic items for Balsamo from a magic shop. He is given a package and heads back. The package is given to the Balsamo. Johnny mentions that the dead girl had a laundrette card in her purse.
The police get a tip off that some drugs will be landed from across the channel. They catch some people collecting the package. The girl says she has to take the package to a laundrette. A policeman realises it may be connected to the dead girl.
A policewomen is substituted for the captured girl. She goes to the laundrette with the package and a man comes in speaks a foreign language to the policewomen but when she does not understand he says he must be mistaken. They follow the man.
Johnny goes to the laundrette and shows a picture of the dead girl to the manager but she denies knowing her, but Johnny thinks she did know her. The policeman goes to the magic shop but finds out nothing. The magic shop is put under surveillance. Balsamo asks Johnny to collect another box of charms from the magic shop.
Johnny gets the charms and the shop owner phones Balsamo's theatre when he sees the police grab Johnny. They find the package is drugs. They arrest the shop owner and realise what has been happening. The police get Johnny to deliver the package to Balsamo.
The police deduce that Balsamo's customers mail him their date of birth and at his shows buy a horoscope from him. They are given a package of drugs instead of the horoscope.
The police are in the audience for Balsamo's next show and Johnny delivers the package. Balsamo's assistant grabs it from him and takes the "horoscopes" to Balsamo. He sells one to a man.
Balsamo receives a message which is from the magic shop owner. He realises he has been discovered and goes to the railway station and catches a train. The man is arrested with the drugs and the police track Balsamo to the train. They get the train to slow down so they can get ahead by car.
The police catch up with the train and board it. The train continues on. The police try to arrest Balsamo but he opens the door on his cabin to jump out and is hit by a train heading in the other direction.
It turns out that the girl was trying to get more money. The shop owner was driving her when she ran away. After she left Johnny Balsamo collected her and killed her.
Sewell called it "a stupid story." [3]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Based on a TV series, this film is designed to provide a vehicle for John Slater as Johnny and Alfred Marks as the joke shop proprietor. For the former, the cap fits fairly well, though his playing is monotonous and one becomes tired of the phoney "working class" jokes and atmosphere. But Alfred Marks' 'act' is artificially dragged in, and holds up a story which is otherwise reasonably efficient, though slow. Jack Stewart scores with a neat portrait of a hard-working detective." [4]
TV Guide called the film a "well-conceived thriller ... The situations and performances are a bit forced, but otherwise interest is easily maintained." [5]
Joan Alexandra Molinsky, known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer, and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona that was heavily self-deprecating and acerbic, especially towards celebrities and politicians, delivered in her signature New York accent. She is considered a pioneer of women in comedy. She received an Emmy Award and a Grammy Award, as well as nomination for a Tony Award.
"Tabula Rasa" is the eighth episode of season 6 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on November 13, 2001 on UPN. It explores the characters not as they are, but as they could be, after they lose their memory to a spell gone awry.
My Beautiful Laundrette is a 1985 British romantic comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. The film was one of the first films released by Working Title Films. The film is set in London during the Thatcher years, and reflects the often fraught relationships between members of the Pakistani and English communities at that time, against the backdrop of social changes across the country. The story focuses on Omar, a British man of Pakistani origin, and his reunion and eventual romance with his childhood friend Johnny, now a street punk. The two become the caretakers and business managers of a launderette originally owned by Omar's uncle Nasser.
A Man of No Importance is a 1994 comedy drama film written by Barry Devlin and directed by Suri Krishnamma, starring Albert Finney.
Joan Rhodes was a British performer, wrestler, stuntwoman and strongwoman. Born into poverty in London, she and her siblings were deserted by their parents. Following unhappy spells in the workhouse and with an aunt, she left home at 14. After sleeping rough in Brewer Street in Soho, she joined a travelling fair, where she got the idea for her act after seeing a professional strongman at work.
Montana Moon is a 1930 pre-Code Western musical film which introduced the concept of the singing cowboy to the screen. Starring Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, Dorothy Sebastian, and Ricardo Cortez, the film focuses on the budding relationship between a city girl and a rural cowboy.
Black Magic is a 1949 American adventure drama romance film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's novel Joseph Balsamo. It was directed by Gregory Ratoff. Set in the 18th century, the film stars Orson Welles in the lead role as Joseph Balsamo, a hypnotist, magician, and charlatan who also goes by the alias of Count Cagliostro, and Nancy Guild as Lorenza/Marie Antoinette. Akim Tamiroff has a featured role as Gitano. The film received mixed reviews.
Colleen is a 1936 American romantic musical comedy film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, and Joan Blondell. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and was the seventh and final picture starring both Keeler and Powell.
Burke & Hare is a 1972 horror film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Derren Nesbitt, Harry Andrews, and Glynn Edwards. It is based on the true story of the Burke and Hare murders, and was the last film to be directed by Sewell.
Paper Bullets is a 1941 American crime thriller film directed by Phil Rosen and starring Joan Woodbury, Jack La Rue and Linda Ware. It was the first film produced by the King Brothers, launching their career.
The Petty Girl (1950), known in the UK as Girl of the Year, is a musical romantic comedy Technicolor film starring Robert Cummings and Joan Caulfield. Cummings portrays painter George Petty who falls for Victoria Braymore (Caulfield), the youngest professor at Braymore College who eventually becomes "The Petty Girl".
Charlie Chan on Broadway is a 1937 American mystery film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Warner Oland, Keye Luke and Joan Marsh. This is the 15th film starring Oland as Charlie Chan and produced by 20th Century Fox.
A Fantastic Fear of Everything is a 2012 British horror comedy film starring Simon Pegg, written and directed by Crispian Mills with Chris Hopewell as co-director. It is based on the novella Paranoia in the Launderette by Bruce Robinson, writer and director of Withnail and I. It has been described as a low-budget "semicomedy" about a children's author-turned-crime-novelist who has become obsessed with murder and murdering. It was released on 8 June 2012 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and received a limited U.S. theatrical release on 7 February 2014. The BBFC classified the film a 15 certificate in the UK, while the MPAA rated the film R in America.
Manushya Mrugam is a 2011 Indian Malayalam-language mystery film written, directed and starring Baburaj in the lead role and Prithviraj Sukumaran in Police office Role. It was produced by his wife Vani Viswanath; the film co-stars Kiran Rathod, and Oviya. The story is about sexual exploitation of young girls. The film was released on 15 July 2011. It was dubbed and released in Tamil as Police Rajyam (2017) and in Hindi as Police Raaj (2020).
Mysterious Intruder is a 1946 American mystery film noir based on the radio drama The Whistler. Directed by William Castle, the production features Richard Dix, Barton MacLane and Nina Vale. It is the fifth of Columbia Pictures' eight "Whistler" films produced in the 1940s, the first seven starring Dix.
The Falcon in San Francisco is a 1945 American crime and mystery film directed by Joseph H. Lewis and stars Tom Conway, Rita Corday and Edward Brophy, who played the recurring role of "Goldie" Locke. The film was the 11th in The Falcon series of detective films, and the eighth featuring Conway as the amateur sleuth. The Falcon in San Francisco was the final film in the series produced by Maurice Geraghty, after which budgets were reduced and location shooting largely abandoned.
Jungle Street, released in the US as Jungle Street Girls, is a 1961 black and white second feature British crime drama directed by Charles Saunders and starring David McCallum, Kenneth Cope, and Jill Ireland. The screenplay was by Alexander Doré from a story by Guido Coen.
Jaathakam is a 1989 Indian Malayalam film, directed by Suresh Unnithan and written by Lohithadas.The film stars Jayaram, Sithara, Shari, Thilakan, Madhu, Sukumaran, Innocent, Jagathy sreekumar and Kaviyoor ponnamma in the lead roles. The film has musical score by R. Somashekharan.
Forensic: The Truth Lies Within, or also called Forensic, is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language psychological crime thriller film directed by Vishal Furia. It is a remake of the 2020 Malayalam film of the same name. The film stars Vikrant Massey, Radhika Apte, Prachi Desai, Rohit Roy and Harbanddana Kaur. The story, set in Mussoorie, follows a police officer and forensic specialist who are on the trail together of a serial killer. It was released on ZEE5 on 24 June 2022. It received positive to mixed reviews soon after its release.
"The New Golden Age" is a crossover event in DC Comics publications. Written by Geoff Johns, the story follows the Justice Society of America unraveling a mystery following the Golden Age heroes and villains and the untold stories that come with it. The story comprises an eponymous one-shot and the central storyline in the ongoing Justice Society of America, as well as tie-in limited series like Stargirl: The Lost Children, Alan Scott: The Green Lantern, Jay Garrick: The Flash, and Wesley Dodds: The Sandman.