The Criminal
by Joseph Losey
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gr?goire Aslan, Jill Bennett, Margit Saad, Sam Wanamaker, Stanley BakerDirector: Joseph Losey
Cinematographer: Robert Krasker
Producer: Jack Greenwood
Producer: Jim O'Connolly
Producer: Nat Cohen
Producer: Stuart Levy
Writer: Alun Owen
Writer: Jimmy Sangster
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-12-03
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Movie Reviews of The Criminal
Movie Review: Thieving boy
Summary: 5 Stars
The Criminal (aka The Concrete Jungle) is, for my money at least, one of Joseph Losey's two best films (the other being King and Country), but it never really garnered the kind of success or reputation it deserved, possibly because it had the misfortune to open on the same day as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which completely overshadowed it. Billed as `the most violent film ever made in Britain,' even 45 years on it's still vicious stuff. Indeed, in the entire cast of characters that populate Alun Owen's excellent and unsentimental screenplay - irredeemable crooks, vicious prison warders, prison governors who don't really want to know, amoral molls and assorted perverts and thugs - the only two people in the entire film who aren't totally corrupt are Laurence Naismith's arresting officer (who is still not above letting on about his informants) and the piano tuner who appears in one brief scene. The plot is a simple enough variation on Touchez Pas au Grisbi, with Stanley Baker's con pulling off a big job and immediately being ratted out by one of his partners who wants a bigger share, but the stark execution and background is what carries it. Certainly its vision of the British prison system as a Hellish melting pot of refuse of all persuasions - Irish, Australian, Italians, West Indians, the mentally disturbed - where the guards don't only turn a blind eye to vicious beatings but even facilitate them is a kick in the groin to the more sedate cop movies of the day.
It's also full of memorable little moments, from the prison weasel spreading the news of an informant's return inbetween lines of Knick Knack Paddywhack to Kenneth J. Warren's inability to say anything without incorporating the word `loike.' Robert Krasker's black and white cinematography has more bite to it than most of its contemporaries, from the hard stark edges of the prison scenes to the bleak half-snowscape of the haunting final shots, while Johnny Dankworth's score makes great use of Cleo Laine's mournful prison balled ("All my loving, all my joy/Came from loving a thieving boy"]). The supporting cast is impressive, offering a virtual who's who of perfectly cast 60s British character actors, including many faces that would later memorably turn up among the ranks in Baker's Zulu). Unlike the wave of British gangster flicks to litter the straight-to-video shelves post-Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, this feels like the real thing rather than a bunch of nicely brought up middle class kids playing dress-up. For some curious reason Anchor Bay's otherwise excellent transfer omits the end credits, played over a melancholy shot of prisoners walking in circles in a stark and wintery exercise yard.
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