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BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films
Crosstrap
Directed by Robert Hartford-Davis, 1961
A claustrophobic crime thriller from the man who brought you the compelling and absurdly brutal Peter Cushing movie Corruption.
Credits
|
Director Production Companies Executive Producers Producer Screenplay Original Novel Photography Studio |
Robert Hartford-Davis Avon Films Ltd, Newbery Clyne Associates Michael Deeley, Bruce Yorke George Mills Phillip Wrestler John Newton-Chance Eric Cross Twickenham Film Studios |
| Cast: Lawrence Payne (Duke); Jill Adams (Sally); Gary Cockrell (Geoff); Zena Marshall (Rina); Bill Nagy (Gaunt); Robert Cawdron (Joe); Larry Taylor (Peron); Max Faulkner (Ricky); Michael Turner (Hoagy); Derek Sydney (Juan) | |
| 62 mins, 5,551 ft, sound, black & white | |
Why are we so keen to find it?
First, because of a strong interest in the director. Robert Hartford-Davis may not have been quite a match for Michael Reeves or Pete Walker, two of the most celebrated British exploitation directors of the 1960s and 70s, but he was an early pioneer, who was willing to push things further than they had gone before. The Daily Cinema's review for Crosstrap describes a "climatic blood-bath where corpses bite the dust as freely as Indians in a John Ford western". But don't forget this film was set in modern Britain, not some mythical past. And while his films were made as commercial product they also dug in the dirt of postwar Britain, highlighting the generational and class conflicts that other filmmakers would avoid or make light of.
While contemporaneous 'new wave' dramas shared his interest in the marginalised or disadvantaged, Hartford-Davis' films presented actual confrontation and its effects. The couple in Crosstrap aspire to a quiet pleasant cottage holiday but suffer intimidation and brutality, while violence, misunderstanding and sexual maturity abound in The Yellow Teddy Bears (1963), Corruption (1968) and others by the same director. These films may not produce a portrait of Britain that we instantly recognise but they do evoke some of the changes that the country was experiencing and the fears that accompanied them. And Hartford-Davis's directorial style is hard, confident and distinctive.
Crosstrap could elucidate on the state of British filmmaking in the very early Sixties, the beginning of the American dollar's modern dominion. More specifically, it might also tell us what was needed to raise the temperature in 1962, when the country was on the eve of Beatlemania and the beginnings of real, significant change.
What's it about?
The plot of Crosstrap is reminiscent of Truman Capote's novel 'In Cold Blood', and in certain respects looks forward to the Michael Haneke's Funny Games (1997, remade 2007). It also shares some similarities with Hartford-Davis's later Corruption. The tables turn in a contained conflict between an (apparently) innocent couple and a gang on the run. The result: visceral tragedy.
Kinematograph Weekly described it thus:
"Geoffrey,a writer and Sally, his young wife, rent a country bungalow so that Geoffrey can finish his book. On their arrival, they find a dead man in the house. It then transpires that Duke, a gang boss and his men are using the place as a hide-out until they can ship the stolen jewels to Spain. Juan, a rival mobster, gets troublesome and Geoffrey and Sally are pushed around by both parties. Duke falls for Sally and makes Rina, his girl friend, jealous. Finally, Duke and his thugs out-gun Juan and his, but when Duke boards an escape plane Rina shoots it down with a revolver! Geoffrey and Sally then return to the bungalow."
Last seen?
Crosstrap hasn't been broadcast on television, which means the last sightings would have been in the cinema. And at 62 minutes it would have been a supporting feature - hence 'B' movie - and limited to its distribution run. Unifilms, which handled a small selection of titles, mainly French, distributed it first, while curiously Monarch, a second-run distributor in the main, gave it another outing in 1967. It would be interesting to know how audiences reacted to its shocks and violence five years after its initial release, when onscreen brutality was more prevalent. The 1967 revival appears to have been its last outing.
What else do we know about it?
Crosstrap started life as a book by long-term pulp writer John Newton Chance, aka John Lymington, aka John Drummond (the name he used for a number of Sexton Blake stories). Lymington (as he is now generally known) specialised in thrillers and speculative fiction, and 'Night of the Big Heat', his most famous book, was adapted first for television in 1960 and then for cinema by Terence Fisher in 1967. Fisher's version starred Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and was well received. Could that explain Crosstrap's revival in the same year?
The film drew on these pulp origins and not just for its content. It was made quickly. Production began on 6 February 1961 and it was released to cinemas in late January 1962.
At least two of the cast members must have impressed Hartford-Davis by the time shooting was completed. Jill Adams, who played Sally, the writer's wife, found a part in another Hartford-Davis film, the aforementioned Compton film The Yellow Teddy Bears, while Gary Cockrell - writer, Geoff - was cast in the sci-fi pop movie Gonks Go Beat in 1965.
Does anything survive?
In a word, no. Not even a solitary still is known to survive; just some film journal reviews and the subsequent careers of those involved. Even John Newton Chance's source novel is hard to find.
Reviews
The Monthly Film Bulletin, not known for its sympathy towards B pictures, didn't hold back: "Overacted, ludicrous and amateurish, this so called thriller finally explodes in a merry crescendo of guns, fists and blood letting. The build-up, on the other hand, is laboured in the extreme." The Kinematograph Weekly agreed in part. "Brawny but brainless," it said, while acknowledging that the country exteriors were 'impressive' and that "cameraman Eric Cross definitely deserves a hand."
But The Daily Cinema was more positive. "Incredible but lively tale of gang-warfare, packed with hearty action and intrigue, plus a spot of sex for flavour." It concluded that the film could offer "robust, popular programme support" and it would "register with the regulars." Serious exploitation fans - of which there are many - are unlikely to be deterred by such faint praise.
William Fowler, Curator of Artists' Moving Image, BFI National Archive
You can find more about British films of the early 1960s, including entries on surviving films and video clips for users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries, at BFI Screenonline. You can also view similar titles at the BFI Mediatheques.
