Dancing with Crime *** (1947, Richard Attenborough, Barry K Barnes, Sheila Sim, Garry Marsh, Bill Owen) – Classic Movie Review 8498

Director John Paddy Carstairs’s 1947 mystery crime drama Dancing with Crime is an interesting attempt at a post-war British quickie in the American crime melodrama style starring real-life couple Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim as London cab driver Ted Peters and his girlfriend Joy Goodall, who foil a crime ring using a dance-hall as a front and round up the killers of their gangster buddy.

There is only so-so direction by comedy man Carstairs, and the screenplay is quite ordinary, but the engaging playing gives it a lift. Bill Owen (billed as Bill Rowbotham) plays Ted’s demobilized soldier buddy Dave Robinson, who gets involved with the mob. Barry K Barnes plays mob henchman Paul Baker, Garry Marsh plays police Detective Sergeant Murray and John Warwick plays Inspector Carter.

It is the second movie for two icons of the British cinema, then struggling to make their way up the ladder. Look out for an uncredited Diana Dors as Annette after her uncredited debut as Mildred in the 1947 The Shop at Sly Corner [Code of Scotland Yard] and an uncredited Dirk Bogarde as a policeman (his first cinema film appearance after his uncredited debut in a 1939 cameo as an extra in the George Formby comedy Come on George!).

It is the kind of film that has a character called Sniffy.

Also in the cast are Barry Jones as mob boss Gregory, Judy Kelly, Patricia Dainton, Peter Croft, Danny Green, John Salew, Johnnie Schofield, Norman Shelley, Dennis Wyndham and Cyril Chamberlain as Sniffy.

Dancing with Crime is directed by John Paddy Carstairs, runs 82 minutes, is made by Coronet Films and Alliance Films, is released by Paramount, is written by Brock Williams, based on the original story by Peter Fraser, is shot in black and white by Reginald H Wyer, is produced by James A Carter and is scored by Benjamin Frankel, with Art Direction by Harry Moore.

It was shot at the Cromwell Studios, Southall, Middlesex, England.

Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim married on 22 January 1945. He died on 24 August 2014, aged 90, and she died on 19 January 2016, aged 93. Sheila Sim retired in 1955 after making only nine cinema movies, apart from an uncredited cameo as Visitor in her husband’s 1959 I’m All Right Jack.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8498

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com