Painted Smile, The (1962)

Small-time con artists Jo Lake (the gorgeous Liz Fraser in an uncharacteristic straight acting role) and Mark Davies (Peter Reynolds) work a blackmail scam to rob unsuspecting men. She lures men with money to her flat, and Mark breaks in on them, playing the outraged husband.

Jo wants to quit because she’s afraid of club-footed Soho underworld boss Kleinie (Kenneth Griffith) but she’s persuaded by Mark to find one more victim before they pack it in.

She goes to the club where she operates and persuades a very-drunk young student, Tom (Tony Wickert) – who has just won a hundred pounds as an award for a design project – to go back to her flat.

Hiding at the flat, Mark hears footsteps mounting the stairs, but instead of Jo, Kleinie appears and callously stabs Mark to death, leaving the body in Jo’s bedroom with the knife in situ.

When she arrives with Tom, Kleinie telephones her and tells her to look in her bedroom.

When Tom removes the knife (getting his fingerprints all over a murder weapon!), Jo tells him the police will blame him and persuades him to get his car and dispose of Mark’s body in the countryside.

Still somewhat drunk, his erratic driving causes him to be stopped by the police but he manages to abandon the car (with the body in the back seat) and escape on foot. By the next morning, he is Britain’s most wanted man.

After reading in the morning paper that the police are after him for murder, Tom makes his way to the home of his fiancée, Mary (Nanette Newman) while his friends, Glynn (Ray Smith) and Roy (a young David Hemmings) set out to find Jo.

Jo has left her apartment but Lucy (Grazina Frame), a hostess at the club, tells them to try St. Pancras Station. The group converge on the station where they find Jo, but they have been followed by detectives who close in.

Running from the police, Jo and Tom are snatched by Kleinie’s two henchmen who bundle them into a car and drive away at speed. Once out of the city, Tom grapples with the driver to crash the car allowing him and Jo to escape – but Kleine shoots Jo dead just as the police arrive and arrest him.

Released in some markets as Murder Can be Deadly. Singer Craig Douglas has a cameo as a nightclub singer.

Jo Lake
Liz Fraser
Kleinie
Kenneth Griffith
Mark Davies
Peter Reynolds
Tom
Tony Wickert
Nightclub Singer
Craig Douglas
Mary
Nanette Newman
Glynn
Ray Smith
Roy
David Hemmings
Mikhala
Harold Berens
Lucy
Grazina Frame
Police Inspector
Richard McNeff
Plainclothes Policeman
Gerald Sim
Gloria
Rosemary Chalmers
Dawn
Mia Karam
1st Henchman
Terence Maidment
2nd Henchman
Bill Stevens
Barman
Lionel Ngakane
Manageress
Ann Wrigg

Director
Lance Comfort

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