West 11 *** (1963, Alfred Lynch, Eric Portman, Kathleen Harrison, Diana Dors, Kathleen Breck, Freda Jackson, Finlay Currie, Harold Lang) – Classic Movie Review 7766

Director Michael Winner orchestrates the atmospheric, downbeat 1963 British action crime thriller West 11 with some degree of style, helped by Otto Heller’s gritty, noir-style London location black and white photography and Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall’s expert screenplay, taken from Laura del Rivo’s novel The Furnished Room. Times have changed quite a bit in West 11. Notting Hill was then a seedy slum district, long before its gentrification, as seen in the 1999 film Notting Hill.

It stars Eric Portman as evil British former army major Richard Dyce, now making a second career as a swindler, who offers recently sacked down-on-his-luck Joe Beckett (Alfred Lynch) a large sum of money to murder his rich aunt (Kathleen Breck).

Portman and Lynch are both ideally cast and effective, while Diana Dors as blowsy divorcée Georgia, Finlay Currie, Freda Jackson and Kathleen Harrison as Lynch’s mum Mrs Beckett are a co-starring cast to savour.

Also in the cast are Harold Lang, Peter Reynolds, Marie Ney, Sean Kelly, Patrick Wymark, Francesca Annis, Una Stubbs, Gerry Duggan, Brian Wilde, Allan McClelland and Ken Collyer.

West 11 is directed by Michael Winner, runs 93 minutes, is made by Angel Productions, released by Associated British Warner-Pathé, written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, based on Laura del Rivo’s novel The Furnished Room, shot by Otto Heller, produced by Daniel M Angel and Vivian Cox, and scored by Stanley Black and Acker Bilk.

At the start Lynch walks past a Notting Hill dilapidated house at 25 Powis Square, later renovated and used in Performance (1970).

Winner’s next film is The System [The Girl-Getters] (1964), with Oliver Reed, Jane Merrow, Barbara Ferris, Julia Foster and Ann Lynn.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7766

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com