Wide Boy ** (1952, Susan Shaw, Sydney Tafler, Ronald Howard) – Classic Movie Review 12,781

Director Ken Hughes’s 1952 British black and white crime film Wide Boy stars Susan Shaw, Sydney Tafler and Ronald Howard. It was written by Australian writer Rex Rienits as a radio play to be broadcast on the BBC in early 1952 but postponed over concerns over its subject matter.

It is Hughes’s feature directorial debut, and he later said it was ‘pretty terrible’, but that is unfair to himself. It was made by Anglo Amalgamated at Merton Park Studios on a budget of just £7,000, and they got quite a lot for their little money.

The great Sydney Tafler stars as black marketeer Benny, dealing in stolen goods in a bomb-ravaged London, still unrecovered from wartime. Ronald Howard plays the police inspector, Chief Inspector Carson.

The original story is by Rex Rienits who also used it for a radio play and a novel. He wrote it for Tafler, who had been in his 1951 British crime film Assassin for Hire, also with Ronald Howard, the first feature film made by Anglo Amalgamated.

It is made by Merton Park Studios and distributed by Anglo Amalgamated. Filming started at the end of January 1952 and it was released in April 1952.

The cast are Susan Shaw as Molly, Sydney Tafler as Benny, Ronald Howard as Chief Inspector Carson, Melissa Stribling as Caroline Blaine, Colin Tapley as Robert Mannering, Laidman Browne as Pop, Gerald Case as Detective Sgt Stott, Glyn Houston as George, Ian Wallace as Mario, Dorothy Bramhall as Felicity, Martin Benson as Rocco, Helen Christie as Sally, and Peggy Banks as receptionist.

Wide Boy is directed by Ken Hughes, runs 67 minutes, is made by Merton Park Studios, is distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated (UK), is written by William Fairchild, based on an original story by Rex Rienits, is produced by William H Williams (executive), Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy, is shot in black and white by Josef Ambor, and is scored by Eric Spear.

Release date: April 1952.

Anglo Amalgamated produced the first 12 Carry On films and the B-movie series The Scales of Justice, Scotland Yard and the Edgar Wallace Mysteries. It also produced Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960), John Schlesinger’s A Kind of Loving (1962) and Billy Liar (1963) and Ken Loach’s Poor Cow (1967).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,781

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