Streaming on Archive.org - SOHO INCIDENT (aka SPIN A DARK WEB, Vernon Sewell, UK, 1956)

Trawling round the remarkable archive.org site looking for a copy of one particular film, the search engine delivered me Soho Incident (aka in the USA Spin A Dark Web) directed by Vernon Sewell.  Click on the film title and it's yours to watch or download. All totally legit.

It came at a propitious moment. My good friend, the now departed Tony Rayns had long been a champion of Sewell's work, regarding him as a cut above the other Brit B-film directors who made a living churning out low budget stuff at Merton Park and elsewhere. Tony had even championed him to the extent of refusing to participate  in a prestigious retrospective season of Brit films of the fifties because there was no place for Sewell in the survey. That was Tony.

Strongroom

Last year in Bologna it looked like Sewell's moment in the sun may be arriving when among the "Recovered and Restored" selections was Strongroom restored by the BFI National Archive. Nobody yet seems to have taken up the opportunity to screen the restored film in Australia (including Cinema Reborn). 

But otherwise there seems to still be little recognition being accorded to Sewell's work. In his notes on Strongroom, linked above, James Bell has a quick run through his key features made between 1943 and 1971. Wikipedia adds a few more details. "Sewell was born in London, England, and was educated at Marlborough College. He directed more than 30 films during his career, starting with Morgenrot (1933) and ending with Burke and Hare (1971). He worked chiefly in B-movies, some of which were, according to the BFI Screenonline "well above the usual cut-price standards of film-making at this level."

James Bell notes that the usual suspects, Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, as well as Edgar Wright have "hailed publicly" Sewell's work.

Lee Patterson, Rona Anderson, Soho Incident

Soho Incident is a quickfire little crime film about a newly arrived Canadian, Jim Bankley, in London (Lee Patterson) trying to find work. An old mate (Robert Arden, goodness from Welles' Mr Arkadin/Confidential Report) gets him a job with a gangster cum gambler who uses Bankley's engineering skills to run a scheme to cheat the bookmakers and get better odds on his horse running at Ascot.  Bad things happen throughout and everybody turns on each other at the end. The American Faith Domergue plays the femme fatale in a genteel way. 

"genteel" Faith Domergue, Soho Incident

One of the characters is a boxing trainer/manager with an Australian accent  played by an Australian-born actor Joss Ambler who had never previously registered with me but whose filmography indicates a career of solid employment in Brit pictures from 1937 to 1958, including a number for Vernon Sewell. Whether he used his Australian accent in the other 60+ movies he made I dont know. Perhaps Barrie Pattison can help out.