This true crime-inspired trudge through the cockney underworld is both misleadingly romanticised and too cheaply produced
Somehow, this true-crime-inspired gangster film brings to mind the 80s/90s concept of “heritage cinema”, a phrase that back in the day was applied to films by Merchant Ivory and any literary adaptation of the era. This particular period drama, however, has no ladies in crinolines sipping tea. Indeed, this recounting of the rise and fall of London mob boss Jack “Spot” Comer (Terry Stone) and his protege-cum-rival Billy Hill (Leo Gregory) mostly features lairy cockney men swearing and slicing each other up with cut-throat razors or finding even more inventive ways to inflict pain. But the film’s nostalgic posturing – where boozy nights in the pub were soundtracked by skiffle-band covers, £80 was a lot of money and all prostitutes were pretty – is just as misleading and romanticised as anything that Helena Bonham Carter...
Somehow, this true-crime-inspired gangster film brings to mind the 80s/90s concept of “heritage cinema”, a phrase that back in the day was applied to films by Merchant Ivory and any literary adaptation of the era. This particular period drama, however, has no ladies in crinolines sipping tea. Indeed, this recounting of the rise and fall of London mob boss Jack “Spot” Comer (Terry Stone) and his protege-cum-rival Billy Hill (Leo Gregory) mostly features lairy cockney men swearing and slicing each other up with cut-throat razors or finding even more inventive ways to inflict pain. But the film’s nostalgic posturing – where boozy nights in the pub were soundtracked by skiffle-band covers, £80 was a lot of money and all prostitutes were pretty – is just as misleading and romanticised as anything that Helena Bonham Carter...
- 4/19/2019
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
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