Compelled * (1960, Ronald Howard, John Gabriel, Beth Rogan, Richard Shaw, Jack Melford, Mark Singleton) – Classic Movie Review 13,788

Ronald Howard stars as an ex-con engineer blackmailed into assisting a jewel theft, in the Danzigers’ 1960 British second feature crime thriller Compelled. 

Director Ramsey Herrington’s 1960 British second feature crime thriller Compelled plods along, and goes through the motions, but isn’t very good. Nobody’s heart is in it. However, Ronald Howard, John Gabriel, Richard Shaw, Jack Melford are all professionals and give reasonable turns, doing their best with the inferior material. I love a heist movie, but this one is a Danzigers disappointment.

Ronald Howard stars as wrongly jailed ex-con Paul Adams a married engineer blackmailed by the wicked criminal Fenton (John Gabriel) into assisting a jewel theft by helping to build a tunnel from under a bookshop to the basement store of a nearby jeweller’s shop. Though working late every night for a month on the project, supposedly in the office, he keeps the truth from his increasingly suspicious wife Carol (Beth Rogan) and of course from his also increasingly curious colleague Derek (Mark Singleton).

A quick late-night call to the empty office, picked up by the Cleaning Lady (Irene Arnold), is all that it takes to confirm Carol’s suspicions. With the help of dim henchman Jug (Richard Shaw), the work on the tunnel goes surprisingly smoothly, apart from piercing a gas pipe, and all seems to be going pretty well till the arrival in the bookshop of Grimes (Jack Melford), a man who knows what they are up to and wants his share of the loot.

Howard is a good actor and he underplays effectively enough, but he looks like he’s wondering how his career got to this point. His character suits his personality, keeping cool and calm, and carrying on. However, Beth Rogan isn’t at all good as the hero’s loyal, long-suffering posh wife. The character is slightly nagging and passive aggressive, so it can’t be easy to play. The other three main actors get by okay in interestingly quirky roles. John Gabriel’s nice and silkily villainous as the crime mastermind, Richard Shaw hits the spot as his dim henchman, and Jack Melford is sufficiently sinister as the mysterious gunman crook Grimes.

The set up is fairly stale, but it is adequate, and it is the troubled development of the plot that stoves the film in, with unbelievable detail, iffy dialogue, a mere couple or so of cramped settings, a tiny number of characters, and almost no outside filming. The script by Mark Grantham needs a total overhaul.

I’m compelled to say that Compelled is a let-down from the Danzigers. It is watchable, but only just.

Ramsey Herrington is also known for the Danzigers’ The Nudist Story (1960), the only other film he directed.

Release date: 56 minutes.

Release date: December 1960 (UK).

Cast: Ronald Howard as Paul Adams, Beth Rogan as Carol, John Gabriel as Fenton, Richard Shaw as Jug, Jack Melford as Grimes, Mark Singleton as Derek, Colin Tapley as Inspector, Stella Bonheur as Mrs Mills. Wilfred Grantham as customer, Garard Green as reporter, John Stuart as book man, Totti Truman Taylor as lady and Irene Arnold as Cleaning Lady.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,788

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