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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1950s
    Movies - 1950s Movies - C 2 Mins Read

    Challenge, The (1960)

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    After her first stardom in America, Jayne Mansfield made two films in England in 1959 – the better-known Too Hot to Handle and this film-noir crime story (released in the US as It Takes A Thief) where she acts against type as Billy Lacross, a tough dark-haired schemer.

    Billy plans a heist, enlists a group of men, and announces, “I’m the boss!” She’s also the driver and throws a big Jag around the rain-soaked streets of London like a pro rally driver.

    Jim Maxton (Anthony Quayle) – a widowed lorry driver set up as the patsy – takes the fall and spends five years in prison while Billy leads her gang on a headline-making crime spree.

    Unfortunately, Jim is the only one who knows where the loot from the bullion robbery is stashed, and the story picks up after his release from jail.

    The cops (Dermot Walsh and Edward Judd) tail and harass him while the gang – who want the money – beat his mother (Barbara Mullen) and kidnap his six-year-old son, Joey (Peter Pike).

    Billy, now a blonde, runs a nightclub but lets her ruthless new man Kristy (Carl Möhner) call the shots.

    There’s a conventional yet eventful “it’s turned out nice again” climax, but it’s energetically handled, and all loose ends are firmly tied at the finish.

    The cinematography by Gordon Dines is wonderful, and there is lots of fine location shooting in London. It’s all enhanced by an atmospheric jazzy music score from Bill McGuffie. British singer Joan Small provided Jayne Mansfield’s singing voice.

    Billy Lacross
    Jayne Mansfield
    Jim Maxton
    Anthony Quayle
    Kristy
    Carl Möhner
    Buddy
    Peter Reynolds
    Spider
    John Bennett
    Ma Piper
    Barbara Mullen
    Joey Maxton
    Peter Pike
    Bob Crowther
    Robert Brown
    Detective Sergeant Willis
    Dermot Walsh
    Detective Sergeant Gittens
    Edward Judd
    Rick
    John Stratton
    Max
    Patrick Holt (as Patrick Parsons)
    Mrs Rick
    Lorraine Clewes
    Shop Steward
    Percy Herbert
    Striptease Artiste
    Liane Marelli
    Nightclub Pianist
    Bill McGuffie
    Dr Westerly
    Lloyd Lamble

    Director
    John Gilling

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    Put some beefiness into your mid-week menu with these recipe ideas published in a Birds Eye advertisement from the Radio Times on 30 September 1965.

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    I thought we would have moving pavements by now when I was a kid 😂

    Totally agree!!!

    The new Tesla, 4.6 next century.

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    We appear to be going backwards

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    The Jetsons strike again.

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