The Main Chance *** (1964, Gregoire Aslan, Tracy Reed, Edward De Souza) – Classic Movie Review 13,302

The involving, very different flavoured 1964 Edgar Wallace filler thriller The Main Chance stars Grégoire Aslan as a master crook who hires a double-crossing layabout (Edward de Souza) to fly in smuggled diamonds.

There’s no investigating police inspector and no murder most foul, so no arrests, and no mystery either, in director John Knight’s interesting, very different flavoured 1964 Edgar Wallace filler thriller The Main Chance starring Grégoire Aslan, Edward de Souza and Tracy Reed.

This British second feature B film is part of the series of Edgar Wallace Mysteries films made at Merton Park Studios, and is neatly written by Richard Harris based on a story by Wallace. So neatly written it is that it’s easy to believe in it all, yes all of it.

Grégoire Aslan plays criminal mastermind Potter, who sends his helper Christine (Tracy Reed) to recruit dodgy conman gambler Michael Blake (Edward de Souza) to fly a plane to smuggle diamonds out of France into England. But Blake plans to double-cross Potter, with the help of his accomplice Joe Hayes (Stanley Meadows). Potter thinks he’s thought of everything. Well, he’s a criminal mastermind isn’t he, with all the latest Bond villain style high-tech equipment in his basement.

The jazzy score is an asset, just under-scoring things and not over-scoring them, and they’ve even dumped the Man of Mystery theme at the start (while still crediting it) in favour of jazz.

Edward de Souza as disgraced ex-RAF pilot Michael Blake and Grégoire Aslan as criminal mastermind Potter give compelling, quirky, first-rate performances, building their cool, calm and collected characters nicely, and Tracy Reed is extremely alluring as Potter’s person Friday, Christine, another portrait of Sixties cool. The work may be relatively humble for Aslan, but he does it with style and finesse. The film poster promises ‘Dames’, but there is only one, and who needs more when we have Tracy Reed?

There’s even a carefully developed theme: loyalty, trust and honour, without which in this crime world there can be no perfect robbery. Or can there? Somebody’s got to get away with the diamonds, after all. There is only one other female in the cast, nice old Joyce Barbour, who has one amusing little scene as the clairvoyant Madame Rozanne.

This time somebody pulls a gun out a drawer and another crook puts it away, won’t touch it. That’s better, guys, very English.

The cast are Grégoire Aslan as Potter, Edward de Souza as Michael Blake, Tracy Reed as Christine, Stanley Meadows as Joe Hayes, Jack Smethurst as Ross, Bernard Stone as Miller, Will Stampe as Carter, Julian Strange as butler, Tony Bailey as chauffeur, and Joyce Barbour as Madame Rozanne.

Grégoire Aslan

Swiss-Armenian actor and musician Grégoire Aslan (born Krikor Kaloust Aslanian; 28 March 1908 – 8 January 1982)  appeared in over 110 film and TV roles.

Edward de Souza

British character actor of Portuguese-Indian and English descent Edward de Souza was born on 4 September 1932).

Tracy Reed

English actress Tracy Reed (born Clare Tracy Compton Pelissier; 21 September 1942 – 2 May 2012) appeared in about 30 films from the early 1960s until 1975.

Release date: November 1964.

The Edgar Wallace Mysteries 

There were 48 films in the British second-feature film series The Edgar Wallace Mysteries, produced at Merton Park Studios for Anglo-Amalgamated and released in cinemas between 1960 and 1965.

• Urge to Kill (March 1960)
• Clue of the Twisted Candle (September 1960)
• The Malpas Mystery (October 1960)

• Marriage of Convenience (November 1960)
• The Man Who Was Nobody (December 1960)
• Partners in Crime (February 1961)
• The Clue of the New Pin (February 1961)
• The Fourth Square (June 1961)
• Man at the Carlton Tower (July 1961)
• Clue of the Silver Key (August 1961)
• Attempt to Kill (September 61)
• Man Detained (October 1961)
• Never Back Losers (December 1961)
• The Sinister Man (December 1961)
• Backfire! (February 1962)
• Candidate for Murder (February 1962)
• Flat Two (February 1962)
• The Share Out (February 1962)
• Number Six (April 1962)
• Time to Remember (July 1962)
• Solo for Sparrow (September 1962)
• Playback (September 1962)
• Locker Sixty-Nine (September 1962)
• Death Trap (October 1962)
• The Set Up (January 1963)
• Incident at Midnight (January 1963)
• The £20,000 Kiss (January 1963)
• On the Run (February 1963)
• Return to Sender (March 1963)
• Ricochet (March 1963)
• The Double (April 1963)
• To Have and to Hold (July 1963)
• The Partner (September 1963)
• Accidental Death (November 1963)
• Five to One (December 1963)
• Downfall (January 1964)
• The Verdict (February 1964)
• We Shall See (April 1964)
• The Rivals (May 1964)
• Who Was Maddox? (June 1964)
• Face of a Stranger (September 1964)
• Act of Murder (September 1964)
• Never Mention Murder (November 1964)
• The Main Chance (November 1964)
• Game for Three Losers (April 1965)
• Change Partners (July 1965)
• Strangler’s Web (August 1965)
• Dead Man’s Chest (October 1965).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,302

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