Little known Ealing movie which I was keen to see because it was based on a play by an Aussie, Ralph Petersen. It tells a series of stories about boxers that take place over one night - there are spivs, gangsters, molls, announcers.
It's well done: Ealing enjoyed this sort of semi documentary male focused entertainment. There's lots of familiar faces like Sid James (announcer) and Sidney Telfer (betting man); Joan Collins pops up as a girlfriend threatened by a gangster, Kay Kendall is a shady lady who tempts boxer Robert Beatty into a fight he shouldn't do.
I'm not wild about Beatty but he has the best part - his death packs a wallop, Jack Warner is a kindly trainer, Roland Lewis impresses in a character part as a nervous boxer (he was a character actor trapped in a leading man's body, Lewis), Bill Travers is in it as well as people like Maxwell Reed.
There's always something happening and it has pleasing atmosphere.
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