Even now with chunks of real estate sacrificed to the
“progress” of Crossrail and corporate encroachments, Soho is still the place to
be in London’s West End. From my first excursions down from Liverpool on school
trips, to eighties evenings in the French House, Coach & Horses and Soho
Brasserie leading off to subterranean clubs, rare grooves and even the Groucho,
it has always been an edgy area defined by an adventurous cool amidst the drab
erotica – an area where the capital is not quite in control and strange,
illicit events may still occur.
Back in the early Sixties, Soho was in transition with
its multi-cultural shopping streets gradually being marked with clip joints and
increasingly-brazen strip clubs. It’s a demimonde sensationally captured in Beat Girl and even Espresso Bongo and it is not too much of a stretch to view this far
less well known film as the third part of this loose Soho-Trilogy.
As with those films, The Small World of Sammy Lee, uses real locations – including a glimpse of the famed 2i’s Club in which so many folk and rock stars began – along with real strippers, albeit in the fictional Peep Show club built on a Pinewood backlot. It also has perhaps the most gripping and believable narrative as the titular Sammy (a fantastic performance from Anthony Newley) strives to pay his dues in order to avoid a heavy beating and disfigurement.
Sammy 'Lee' Leeman is a compere at the Peep Show Club and
chief amongst his many weaknesses is his predilection for gambling. The film opens following a spectacularly
unsuccessful all-night session that leaves him £500 in debt to one of the
gangsters running the area, the unseen “Connor”.
Sammy later sees another one of Connor’s customers who
has had his face slashed for late payment, it can only mean one thing and he
has no option but to try and talk his way out of it.
The sweetest girl in all the world… |
After that day’s rehearsal, Sammy receives two of Mr
Connors’ heavies in his dressing room: the world-weary older hand, Fred
(Kenneth J. Warren) and the excitable young apprentice, Johnny (Clive
Colin-Bowler). Not quite John Hurt and Tim Roth in The Hit but the more I think about it… they’re cut from the same grimy cloth.
For some reason Fred decides to give Sammy a chance… five hours to get the money and avoid the consequences and so begins the chase of Sammy’s life.
At first he tries the easy route and cabs it over to
Whitechapel and his brother Lou (Warren Mitchell) who runs a delicatessen with
long-suffering wife Milly (Miriam Karlin). Pleasantries quickly aside Lou might
just lend Sammy the money until Milly intervenes… Perhaps it would be good for
Sammy to work this one out for himself she suggests, the guilt of a previous
fling hanging over the two in Lou’s oblivious presence.
It’s Sammy’s time to stand up and start counting… with
the aid of his slightly befuddled sidekick Harry (Wilfrid Brambell) and in
between shifts introducing the dancers at the Peep, he racks up the invention
to try and raise the cash. He flogs some dodgy watches, gets glasses for a new
club – run by an exasperated Roy Kinnear and a fey Derek Nimmo (harder than he
looks, he went to school with my Dad in Liverpool!) - and pays off one creditor against another.
Mr Newley with Wilfrid Brambell |
Meanwhile Patsy has been persuaded to do a turn by sleazy
Gerry and Sammy ends up decking him and getting the sack. Julia Foster insisted
on doing the routine herself and it adds to our recognition of Sammy’s own
disgust: Patsy’s not the kind of girl he wants dragged down in his world and
she’s an important part of this day when his small world not only gets turned
upside down but he develops a sense of moral responsibility.
Time clicks on and Sammy’s almost within reach of his
total; he has an offer on the antique chair in which his mother used to sit,
he’s loathe to sell it but it may be his only hope. He wants to face up to his
debtors and yet the chance to flee up North with Patsy also offers him a way
out…
What’ll it be Sammy Lee?
There’s a fab score composed by Kenny Graham and a
soundtrack is available from Trunk Records whilst Sammy is available on Blu-ray
– all the better to spot those landmarks, streets and atmospheres that even now
persist.
You're too late mate, The Blue Posts has just closed down... |
No comments:
Post a Comment