Customer Reviews

British Film Noir Double Feature (The Slasher (Cosh Boy) / Twilight Women (Women of the Twilight))

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These are not Film Noir in any real sense of the term. A pair of very decent British crime programmers that should satisfy anyone with a taste for this kind of material. The transfers are excellent.

THE SLASHER (aka COSH BOY, 1953) is the lesser of the two films, but it has some merits. James Kenney fully lives up the lead role of a hardened young gang leader. He's got carry the film and he does with exemplary flair. Some moments in Kenney's performance may remind viewers of Richard Attenborough in BRIGHTON ROCK. Joan Collins makes a good appearance in one of her earliest films, and we have both Hermiones, Baddeley and Gingold in supporting parts. This film has lettle true depth, it's mainly making a statement about corrupt youth of "today", but it's well worth at least one look

Far superior is TWILIGHT WOMEN (aka WOMEN OF TWILIGHT, 1952). A taut, engaging little thriller. Laurence Harvey fans may be disappointed at the actor's small role in this film, still his character's fate looms large over one of the other characters. Fine performances all around, in a story set in a boarding house for unwed mothers. This film could never have been produced in the US at the time, it's quite frank about the women's circumstances and even has a healthy dose of humor. Freda Jackson is top notch as the deceptively humanitarian landlady. René Ray is good (she looks like a British Tallulah Bankhead) and Dora Bryan is in typically fine form as is Vida Hope. Harvey's two scenes are very well acted and it's easy to see what a superb actor he would soon prove himself to be. His singing is surely dubbed, but he handles that well too. This is high melodrama, well worth seeking out.