Offbeat [The Devil Inside] *** (1961, William Sylvester, Mai Zetterling, John Meillon, Anthony Dawson, John Phillips, Neil McCarthy, Victor Brooks) – Classic Movie Review 13,823

William Sylvester stars as an MI5 officer who goes undercover to catch a criminal gang, in the 1961 black-and-white British second feature crime thriller film Offbeat [The Devil Inside].

Director Cliff Owen’s 1961 black-and-white British second feature crime thriller film Offbeat [The Devil Inside] is written by Peter Barnes and stars William Sylvester, Mai Zetterling, John Meillon and Anthony Dawson.

A police sergeant investigating a crime gang is murdered, and frustrated Police Superintendent Gault (John Phillips} of Scotland Yard calls in lone-wolf MI5 officer Layton (William Sylvester) to go undercover to catch an accomplished, calculating gang of jewellery thieves and bank robbers. Subversively, they turn out to be a surprisingly civilised crew, rather than the anticipated vicious gang. Layton starts by carrying out a pre-arranged robbery at a bank himself, and Superintendent Gault (John Phillips} then gets him to pose as Steve Ross, a criminal who has died at sea. 

Layton ingratiates himself with gang member Remick (John Meillon), who leads him to gang boss Dawson (Anthony Dawson), who agrees to include him in the well-organised gang drill and in their new bank job, in which they tunnel their way from the street overnight into an underground vault filled with jewels.

Offbeat is an exceptional crime thriller B-film about a rogue MI5 agent (Sylvester) who falls for gangster’s moll Ruth Lombard (Mai Zetterling) while infiltrating the gang and masquerading as a thief himself, and soon, impressed by loyalty and honour among thieves. swings over the crooks’ side. He finally finds people and a cause to believe in and be part of. He has no intention of shopping them to the police, as planned. In fact, he plans to take the money, his share of a new bank job, and run, off to South America with the lovely Ruth.

John Phillips as Superintendent Gault, Victor Brooks as Inspector Adams and Anthony Baird as the London City Constable are the police involved. All the participants give it their best shot and the result is arresting, thanks to the strongly developed idea in the original story and screenplay by Peter Barnes that sparks it off, and they could hardly have a better script or better dialogue. The film has interesting morals: the crooks are honourable, loyal men, and it is entirely on their side, against the smug, unsympathetic policemen, who are trying to bring them down. As with Rififi or The League of Gentlemen, the whole game plan is to excite us about the life of crime, the criminals, and the robbery, stoking it up so much that we are desperate for them to get away.

Sylvester is a valuable, conflicted anti-hero, while Zetterling, in her prime, deserves bigger, better movies maybe, but she’s extraordinarily classy and effective. The duo make their connection believable and their actions credible. Anthony Dawson is particularly good as the cool, calculating gang boss Dawson, John Meillon underplays gently, and charmingly as gang member Remick, and Victor Brooks scores strongly as the over-zealous copper Adams. John Phillips can play Police Superintendents in his sleep but he puts his backbone into it.

Interesting to have Guyanese-born British actor Harry Baird cast as one of the robbers. Austrian-born Joseph Fürst, remembered as Dr Metz in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971), plays the diamond loot fence smoothly, and is one of several high-calibre actors who could have more screen time, but then we only have 71 minutes to rush through the plot. Director Cliff Owen keeps good control of it, Geoffrey Faithfull’s cinematography manages stylish touches, and Ken Jones’s jazzy score accompanies nicely.

Offbeat is indeed an offbeat film, which is its main charm, the title presumably playing on the police beat idea, but it is so obscure that there was a new US title, The Devil Inside, which fails to capture the crime idea entirely.

Cast: William Sylvester, Mai Zetterling, John Meillon, Anthony Dawson, John Phillips, Victor Brooks, Joseph Furst, Neil McCarthy, Harry Baird, Diana King, Gerard Heinz, Ronald Adam, Neil Wilson, Nan Munro, Anthony Baird.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,823

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