Handsome drifter Johnny Mansell (George Baker) flees London to avoid some villains who are looking to collect on a large gambling debt he owes them.
He returns to his Yorkshire hometown of Rawborough (the movie was filmed mostly in Rotherham) where he moves into a boarding house with his nervy brother Dave (Terence Morgan) and meets Dave’s girl, Calico (Diana Dors at her most pneumatic) – a femme fatale who dreams of Paris and Italy.
Dave is a payroll clerk at a local steel foundry and has embezzled £300 to buy expensive gifts for the glamorous but mercenary Calico. Now he desperately needs to repay the money before the auditors make their annual visit to the firm in a week’s time.
Johnny believes he can win enough money through betting and heads to the race track, but Calico pushes Dave to rob the wages office at his workplace and steal all the money to cover up his fraud, giving him a revolver and promising she will go away with him if he succeeds.
But the robbery goes tragically wrong and Dave kills the night watchman, old Joe Ryan (Joseph Tomelty), setting the two brothers on a downward spiral as Ryan’s son, Paddy (Patrick Allen) becomes suspicious.
There’s a distinct lack of Yorkshire accents given the locale, but the photography and the northern industrial setting are excellent and provide a splendid time capsule of a time and place now long gone.
Executive Producer George Minter was so determined to have Diana Dors in the role of Calico that he held up filming for two years until she was free to take the part. His faith was fully justified.
A gritty little British film noir crime drama. The title theme is sung by Jim Dale.
Calico
Diana Dors Johnny Mansell
George Baker Dave Mansell
Terence Morgan Sylvia
Jane Griffiths Paddy Ryan
Patrick Allen Joe Ryan
Joseph Tomelty Sergeant Lamb
Thomas Heathcote Mr Potter
Russell Napier Danny
Norman MacOwan Mrs Finnegan
Maureen Delaney Flo
Betty Warren Eric Downs
Chris Fay Young Rough
Terry Baker Fletcher
Timothy Bateson Inspector Harris
Andrew Keir Mr Holroyd
Wilfrid Lawson Pawnbroker
John Salew Linda
Sandra Francis
Director
Gordon Parry
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He returns to his Yorkshire hometown of Rawborough (the movie was filmed mostly in Rotherham) where he moves into a boarding house with his nervy brother Dave (Terence Morgan) and meets Dave’s girl, Calico (Diana Dors at her most pneumatic) – a femme fatale who dreams of Paris and Italy.
Johnny believes he can win enough money through betting and heads to the race track, but Calico pushes Dave to rob the wages office at his workplace and steal all the money to cover up his fraud, giving him a revolver and promising she will go away with him if he succeeds.
