SEAN CONNERY & YVONNE ROMAIN IN 'THE FRIGHTENED CITY'

Poster image of Yvonne Romain for THE FRIGHTENED CITY Year: 1961 Rating: **

With a terrific title like THE FRIGHTENED CITY, a British Neo Noir that actually goes the 1930's-style Classic Gangstr route, you'd think characters would be more... well... frightened... but random bursts of mobsters messing up nightclubs that don't pay for extortion happens so fast there's nothing to really fear but broken glass....

The plot is simple and straight from the Al Capone playbook of a CITY being divided by gangsters/businessman; that's the idea given by first-billed Herbert Lom as a shady accountant, usually a side-role in these kind of action/dramas, but he was more famous than fellow HELL DRIVERS veteran Sean Connery in the muscular role...

Sean Connery and Yvonne Romain in THE FRIGHTENED CITY

The following year's first James Bond's (and thereafter superstar actor) is a former cat burglar hired by climber Alfred Marks (through Lom) to keep the various thugs in line. But it's never entirely clear what Connery's Paddy Damion is doing except romancing Lom's French singing moll, and this film's ingenue, Yvotte Romain... which, in a crime flick supposedly all about danger, is the riskiest thing going... 

But overall, nothing exciting really happens, a tremendous let-down given the cast including token detective John Gregson, ultimately as bored as the mobsters (Lom, Marks) and our ambiguous Noir-like anti-hero Connery, who frankly has too good a conscience. Perhaps he'd have worked better as the cop. 

Herbert Lom and Sean Connery in THE FRIGHTENED CITY

Sean Connery and Yvonne Romain in THE FRIGHTENED CITY

Herbert Lom and Yvonne Romain in THE FRIGHTENED CITY

Sean Connery and Herbert Lom in THE FRIGHTENED CITY

Sean Connery and Yvonne Romain in THE FRIGHTENED CITY

British model Julie Shearing cameo in THE FRIGHTENED CITY

British model Julie Shearing as Hatcheck Girl in THE FRIGHTENED CITY

British model Julie Shearing as Hatcheck Girl in THE FRIGHTENED CITY