Crosstrap * (1962, Laurence Payne, Jill Adams, Zena Marshall, Gary Cockrell) – Classic Movie Review 13,984

Robert Hartford-Davis’s 1962 British B-movie crime film Crosstrap is adapted from the 1956 novel The Last Seven Hours by John Newton Chance, and stars Laurence Payne, Jill Adams, Zena Marshall, and Gary Cockrell.

Director Robert Hartford-Davis’s 1962 British B-movie crime thriller film Crosstrap is adapted by Philip Wrestler from the 1956 novel The Last Seven Hours by John Newton Chance, and stars Laurence Payne, Jill Adams, Zena Marshall, and Gary Cockrell.

Eager young novelist Geoff (Gary Cockrell) and his wife Sally (Gary Cockrell) drive up to the English countryside where they have rented an isolated bungalow to allow Geoff to finish his latest book in peace and quiet, but they soon find a dead man in the bath.

They are immediately confronted by creepy, lascivious gangland boss Duke (Laurence Payne) and his henchmen (Bill Nagy as Gaunt, Robert Cawdron as Joe) who have been using the empty property as a hide-out for stolen loot that they are planning to smuggle out of the UK to Spain. But rival gangster Juan (Derek Sydney), who is also creepy and lascivious, and his henchmen are also after the loot and are outside the house. The corpse is one of Juan’s men.

This is a very poor film, shot on cramped, flimsy sets at Twickenham Studios, and in what looks like somebody’s, admittedly spacious and luxurious, back garden. There’s an awful lot of talk, most of it absolute corny dross, before a busy, if preposterous all-action aviation climax. There’s not an ounce of credibility, conviction or style anywhere.

You could feel sorry for some of the actors, who are doing their best, particularly Zena Marshall, who is left high and dry by her rotten role as random foreign girl as Rina, in Philip Wrestler’s struggling screenplay based on the 1956 novel The Last Seven Hours by John Newton Chance. You could feel sorry for Laurence Payne, an effective actor when he was cast right (ie not here), and that nice Jill Adams (who has also been employed more effectively).

By the way, Rina’s fed up because she realises her greasy man Duke has transferred his affections to sweet Sally. This, of course, turns out to be a crucial plot point. Just saying. On the plus side there is a lot of gunplay and fisticuffs, and running about the garden (and studio set), all of which lead to a satisfyingly large number of dead bodies. At least none of these characters is ever going to grace the screen again.

It’s only an hour long, but it seems to drag interminably by. So it is boring, but you could say it is busy and eventful. It came free with the big picture back in the day, so fair enough. But many of these support features are admirable. It’s just this one isn’t. Is it watchable? Mmm, OK, just.

This poor B movie was a sign that Fifties starlet Jill Adams’s career seemed to have lost momentum and direction, though Robert Hartford-Davis employed her again in The Yellow Teddy Bears (1963) and she got a second Doctor film role, in Doctor in Distress (1963). 

I forgot to mention the jazz score by Steve Race, a very jolly item that’s worth listening to when the dialogue gets dull. It is hopelessly inappropriate to the crime thriller circumstances, but that doesn’t stop it being enjoyable. He also wrote two songs for Calling Paul Temple (1948) and a few other film scores.

I’m not sure what the title Crosstrap is supposed to mean, but it’s a heck of a lot better than The Last Seven Hours.

Crosstrap was on the BFI’s Missing Most Wanted list but was found in 2010.

The cast are Laurence Payne as Duke, Jill Adams as Sally, Zena Marshall as Rina, Gary Cockrell as Geoff, Bill Nagy as Gaunt, Robert Cawdron as Joe, Larry Taylor as Peron, Max Faulkner as Ricky, Derek Sydney as Juan, Michael Turner as Hoagy.

Release date: January 1962.

Runtime: 62 minutes.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,984

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