Street of Shadows (1953)

Street of Shadows is one of the more interesting examples of the British film noir. It’s a B-movie and it really does tick most of the noir boxes.

Luigi (Cesar Romero) runs a pin-table saloon. It appears that such establishments really were a thing. It’s basically a bar laid out like an amusement arcade where patrons can play arcade games whilst indulging in the consumption of alcoholic beverages. It’s a thriving establishment and Luigi is reasonably wealthy. He’s also reasonably respectable. Luigi’s might be a bar but it’s a legitimate business. He makes sure there is no trouble and his relations with the local police are cordial.

Luigi’s character is established from the outset. He’s easy going and generous and kind but he’s also shrewd and determined and when the occasion calls for it he’s a tough guy. He’s a popular guy because he’s a decent guy and he’s easy to like.

Limpy (Victor Maddern) acts as a kind of personal assistant and general-purpose dogsbody to Luigi. As his name suggests he is a cripple with a severe limp. His loyalty to Luigi is total. For his part Luigi has a great affection for his assistant and is careful to treat him always with respect. Unfortunately not everyone in this imperfect world has Luigi’s manners and Limpy does find himself made the butt of cruel jokes from time to time.

There’s also a girl. Angele Abbé (Simone Silva) had been Luigi’s girlfriend until he discovered that she was being too friendly with other men. Much too friendly, and to too many other men. Luigi, hardly surprisingly, dumped her. Angele has continued on her self-chosen downward spiral and is held together by alcohol, self-pity and the belief that somehow she can persuade Luigi to take her back. Which is not going to happen. Apart from anything else Luigi is the kind of guy who sticks to decisions once he’s made them. Angele has a great deal of pity for herself but none for other people and her behaviour towards Limpy is shocking in its casual cruelty. At the moment Angele has got herself involved with a rather nasty bad boy sailor.

There’s also another girl. Through a series of chance events Luigi makes the acquaintance  of Barbara Gale (Kay Kendall). Barbara is charming and classy but she always seems to be ill at ease. We soon find out why. She has fallen in with a very bad crowd and one of them is her husband. These are bad people and just how willing she is to go along with their nefarious schemes is open to question.

There’s an immediate attraction between Luigi and Barbara. In fact Luigi, being an old-fashioned romantic, has fallen for her hard.

It’s obvious that there’s plenty of potential here for things to get complicated and messy. In fact it’s the kind of situation that has been known to end in murder. And in this case there is indeed murder, but both the identity of the victim and the circumstances are not quite what we might have expected.

There’s a certain sense of inevitability in evidence here. We’re dealing with a number of characters who seem like they’re destined to get themselves into trouble, and they seem like the sorts of people who having got themselves into a hole will contrive to keep digging the hole deeper and deeper.

This seems to be the only film made by writer-director Richard Vernon (although he does have a few producing credits). There wasn’t very much money spent on this movie but what was spent was spent pretty well. There’s some authentic noir atmospheric to the visuals and Luigi’s pin-table saloon makes a great setting - sinister laughing clowns add a definite noir flavour. The script, based on a novel by Laurence Meynell, is perfectly serviceable.

Cesar Romero gives a breezy and charming performance as a man who thinks he has life under control, until he finds out that he hasn’t. Kay Kendall has plenty of style and the two of them haver the right chemistry. Edward Underdown makes a rather brusque Scotland Yard inspector. It’s Victor Maddern as the crippled Limpy who really steals the picture though. It’s a performance that is sympathetic but without sentimentality and it has a definite edge to it.

Street of Shadows was released in a shortened version in the US as Shadow Man. The original British version forms part of VCI’s Forgotten Noir DVD series. The transfer is nothing special but it’s quite acceptable for a budget DVD release.

Street of Shadows is a cheap but well-crafted B-movie with a distinctively English noir feel. The fine performances make this one well worth seeing. Highly recommended.