1954 film by Vernon Sewell
Radio Cab Murder is a 1954 British second feature[1] crime film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Jimmy Hanley, Lana Morris and Sonia Holm.[2] It was made by the independent Eros Films.
Plot
After serving a term in prison for safe-cracking, World War Two veteran and ex-con Fred Martin finds work as a taxi cab driver. He is engaged to be married to Myra, the cab company's dispatcher, a former member of the Women's Royal Naval Service. While picking up a fare, Martin witnesses a bank robbery and tails the criminals, but his cab is wrecked during the chase. The police find a well-known safe-cracker dead of apparent natural causes and ask Martin to go undercover, join the bank-robbery gang, and expose its leader. His boss arranges a sham firing based on his having wrecked his cab, but this causes a revolt among the cabbies, who plan to go on strike to support his reinstatement. The robbery is carried off, but the gang discovers Martin's identity and tries to kill him by locking him in a deep freezer at an ice cream factory. He is saved by his cabby comrades, his boss, and Myra, who ride to the rescue and corner the crooks with the aid of the police.[3]
Production
It was made at Walton Studios and on location around Kensington and Notting Hill in London. The film's sets were designed by the art director John Stoll.
Critical reception
The Radio Times gave the film two out of five stars.[4]
TV Guide also gives it two out of five stars and commented that "a good cast is all that saves this weakly scripted effort".[3]
According to Sky Movies, which also rated the film two out of five stars, "Vernon Sewell was both a competent and prolific director in the genre, and brings a professional crispness that many of his contemporaries lacked."[5]
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