The Frightened Man

CinemaSerf

This rather cheap and cheerful effort actually has quite a decent, complex, plot and Dermot Walsh ("Julius") and on-screen father Charles Victor ("Rosselli") work well together to create just a little more suspense than usual in this British crime drama. The latter runs an antique shop and, occasionally, fences some stolen goods to help fund his son through Oxford University. The pretty ungrateful son manages to get himself sent down, returns home and basically cleans the old man out - whilst, simultaneously - falling for the lodger "Amanda" (Barbara Murray) with whom he runs off only to fall in with some more substantial crooks who are planning a daring diamond heist. When it all starts to go wrong, and the cops begin to close in, poor old Dad tries to help out his ingrate of a son but is it all just too late? It doesn't hang about, the narrative is well paced and the romance kept to a minimum which really helps this to stay on track. Thora Hird and John Horsley crop up now and again to add a bit of cornflour to the gravy, making for quite a watchable hour, or so.