Jungle Street [Jungle Street Girls] ** (1960, David McCallum, Kenneth Cope, Jill Ireland, Brian Weske) – Classic Movie Review 12,595

‘They ignited the spark that exploded in murder and sin!’ Charles Saunders’s interesting 1960 black and white British crime drama Jungle Street [Jungle Street Girls] stars married couple David McCallum and Jill Ireland, plus Kenneth Cope.

‘They ignited the spark that exploded in murder and sin!’ Charles Saunders’s quite interesting 1960 black and white British crime drama Jungle Street [Jungle Street Girls] stars David McCallum, Kenneth Cope, and Jill Ireland.

David McCallum stars as young Terry Collins, who mugs an old man, who dies. Brian Weske plays Joe Lucas, who finds out and blackmails Terry. So Terry needs money and plans to rob a nightclub safe with his friend Johnny (Kenneth Cope), the boyfriend of a stripper (Jill Ireland) Terry fancies.

Low budget and humble it may be, but the story and the cast maintain a considerable level of interest and even fascination. It’s less humdrum than expected and time has added an extra layer. It is an interesting, if minor film from and interesting period in British film-making.

It was released in the UK in 1960 by Regal Films and the next year in the US, bizarrely but alluringly retitled Jungle Street Girls, promoted as an adults-only film by Ajay Films.

It received an A rating from the British Board of Film Classification after cuts, including shortening two striptease scenes and deleting a back view of Jill Ireland baring her breasts to the club audience.

The screenplay is by Alexander Doré from a story by the film’s producer Guido Coen.

Coen said McCallum had substantial input in the direction of the film. McCallum was still in his juvenile delinquent film role phase, accessing James Dean in his performance.

McCallum and Jill Ireland were husband and wife when the film was made. Ireland married Charles Bronson in 1968 after meeting him when he and McCallum were filming The Great Escape (1963).

Joy Webster (as Rene) has a similar role in Charles Saunders’s Womaneater.

It is the first of three films produced by the Theatrecraft production company in the early 1960s.

The cast are David McCallum as Terry Collins, Kenneth Cope as Johnny Calvert, Jill Ireland as Sue, Brian Weske as Joe Lucas, Vanda Hudson as Lucy Bell, Edna Doré as Mrs Collins, Thomas Gallagher as Mr Collins, Howard Pays as Sergeant Pelling, Joy Webster as Rene, Martin Sterndale as Inspector Bowen, John Chandos as Jacko Fielding, Meier Tzelniker as Mr Rose the tailor, Larry Burns as Barman, Fred Griffiths as Dealer (Dealo) the bouncer, Julie Shearing as Julie the Cashier, Faye Craig as Native Dancer, Anne Scott as Margo, Gillian Watt as Dancing Girl, Alfred Farrell as Mr Burns, Jacqueline Jones as Dolly, William Wilde as Sid Porter, Howard Douglas as Old Bill, Richard McNeff as Policeman, Marian Collins as Announcer, and Shirley Anne Field as Jaqui.

It was released on DVD by Odeon Entertainment in 2008, with the 1963 British crime drama A Matter of Choice.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,595

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