Number Six ** (1962, Ivan Desny, Nadja Regin, Michael Goodliffe, Brian Bedford) – Classic Movie Review 13,299

The 1962 British Edgar Wallace Mystery crime drama film Number Six stars Michael Goodliffe as a London copper who plots to bring an international criminal (Ivan Desny) to justice.

Director Robert Tronson’s 1962 British Edgar Wallace Mystery crime drama film Number Six features Ivan Desny, Nadja Regin, Michael Goodliffe, Brian Bedford and Joyce Blair. In the story based on Edgar Wallace’s 1927 novel, a London copper tries to bring an international criminal to justice.

Ivan Desny stars as Charles Valentine, an international criminal who arrives in London and gets involved with wealthy Euro heiress Nadia Leiven (Nadja Regin) and English nightclub singer-dancer Joyce Blair. But a London police chief, Detective Superintendent Hallett of Scotland Yard (Michael Goodliffe), is determined to get Valentine for murdering previous lovers, and puts an agent he calls Number Six on the case, keeping the agent’s identity secret.

Valentine goes ahead with his plans to rob Nadia, reluctantly accepting the help of a partner in dodgy young Jimmy Gale (Brian Bedford), who has saved him when he was attacked by nightclub waiter Luigi Pirani (Maxwell Shaw).

Valentine tries desperately to uncover the agent’s identity, starting to suspect his servants (Leonard Sachs as Welland) and henchmen (Jimmy Gale, or maybe Harold Goodwin as Nadia’s driver Smith, or Malou Pantera as the servant Lotte).

Number Six is a not very convincing, but not too bad crime mystery thriller film. It is not nearly slick or smart enough, but it is fairly amusing. Philip Mackie’s screenplay is a bit of a disappointment, with some weak dialogue and unbelievable situations. Somehow, when actors pull guns in old Brit movies, it’s never credible. They’re just play acting, and not very good at it either. They’re not very good at the fisticuffs either.

Goodliffe is really quite good as the dogged copper, Desny is odd but ok as the chilly Euro villain (called Charles Valentine but speaking with a German accent), the exotic Regin vamps amusingly but unconvincingly, Blair’s not much of a showstopper (with a couple of weak numbers, including A Lifetime isn’t Long Enough by Keith Papworth), and Bedford’s performance is entertainingly off-key weird, too smarmy smooth and just not tough enough. Somewhere there’s a better film of this material, but not here, and the material’s not that great anyway. And there is very plain film-making by Robert Tronson.

A fondness for creaky old Brit crime mystery thrillers would keep you watching and on its side, along with the finally solved guessing game as to who Number Six is.

The cast are Nadja Regin as Nadia Leiven, Ivan Desny as Charles Valentine, Brian Bedford as Jimmy Gale, Michael Goodliffe as Detective Superintendent Hallett, Joyce Blair as Carol Clyde, Leonard Sachs as Welland, Maxwell Shaw as Luigi Pirani, Harold Goodwin as Smith, John Welsh as Assistant Commissioner, Barrie Ingham as house agent, Derrick Sherwin as Detective Sargeant Waters, Malou Pantera as the servant Lotte, André Mikhelson as Head Waiter, Josephine Gordon as Mrs Pirani, and Norman Florence as waiter.

Number Six is directed by Robert Tronson, runs 58 minutes, is made by Merton Park Studios, is distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated, is written by Philip Mackie, is shot in black and white by Bert Mason, is produced by Jack Greenwood, and is scored by Bernard Ebbinghouse.

Release date: April  1962.

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).
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