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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1960s
    Movies - 1960s Movies - B 2 Mins Read

    Big Switch, The (1968)

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    This low budget crime thriller begins with playboy John Carter (Sebastian Breaks) meeting beautiful blonde Samantha (Erika Raffael) at a swinging Soho “discotheque” (whatever happened to discotheques?) and going back with her to her Chelsea “pad”.

    But when John pops out for cigarettes and returns, he finds Sam dead and is set up for her murder.

    The killing is the work of gangster and nightclub owner Karl Mendez (Derek Aylward, pictured at left) who now blackmails Carter to travel to Brighton for an as-yet-unspecified purpose for which he will receive £5000 for his trouble.

    In Brighton, Carter and Karen (Virginia Wetherell) – a friend of Mendez – are forced by Mendez’s goons to participate in a sadistic photoshoot supervised by a drooling photographer and two crazy dolly birds on acid.

    It turns out Mendez is trying to smuggle fellow-crook Bruno Miglio (Douglas Blackwell) back into the country and the film culminates in a shootout in a penny arcade on a snowy West Pier and an (unintentionally) comical chase in the ghost train.

    The Big Switch stars nobody you’ve really ever heard of and clearly, most of the ladies were selected for their willingness to disrobe on screen.

    It’s a slow and largely pointless story, but if you fancy some great shots of Soho in the late 60s with kipper ties, miniskirts, 60s decor, MGB’s and Aston Martins it’s definitely worth a look, and the soundtrack is very “groovy” (and wouldn’t be out of place in an ITC series).  It’s also nice to see Brighton’s West Pier again.

    Released in some markets as Strip Poker. A crisp digitally remastered version is available on Blu-ray from BFI. Mercifully, it’s only 68-minutes long.

    John Carter
    Sebastian Breaks
    Karen
    Virginia Wetherell
    Hornsby-Smith
    Jack Allen
    Karl Mendez
    Derek Aylward
    Samantha
    Erika Raffael
    Bruno Miglio
    Douglas Blackwell
    Cathy
    Julie Shaw
    Jane
    Jane Howard
    Al
    Roy Sone
    Gerry
    Nicholas Hawtrey
    Mike
    Brian Weske
    Sally
    Gilly Grant
    Chief Inspector
    Desmond Cullum-Jones
    Narrator
    Patrick Allen

    Director
    Pete Walker

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    For fans of the radio series Round The Horne (1965 - 1968) - starring the inimitable Kenneth Williams - there are several full episodes on Spotify. Some of the humour is still pretty close to the edge, even by modern standards. Bona! 

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