cult film freak: JACQUELINE ELLIS AND JACK HEDLEY IN 'NEVER BACK LOSERS'

Jacqueline Ellis in NEVER BACK LOSERS Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2

Another b-crime programmer from the early 1960's that was originally an episode of the British anthology EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERY THEATER, and Jack Hedley, who we follow from a boring desk job at an insurance company, becomes their mobile investigator...

And with an hour runtime, it's not long until he finds not only the villain in a slithering Patrick Magee, but ingenue Jacqueline Ellis, a bad girl initially, visiting Jack's home with an angry pistol drawn...

Jack Hedley in NEVER BACK LOSERS with Patrick Magee

Turns out she's really not bad, only worried, as her brother's a jockey mixed up with a crooked gambling ring, and might be the next horseman dead after the one being investigated here...

All so Magee can fix horses better than his rival, who Jacqueline Ellis worked for, and NEVER BACK LOSERS provides one of the most laidback gumshoe-types in Jack Hedley... resembling a sophisticated, leading man version of character-actor Eddie Byrne... and despite the fact he never seems pressured there's still some intrigue, suspense, and, thank God, that pretty dame's always by his side.