Main Cast: Richard Todd, Peter Sellers, Elizabeth Sellars, Adam Faith, Carol White
Release Year: 1960
Country: UK
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
This shockingly violent yet engaging crime drama is about a bitter battle for survival in the lingering poverty of post-World War II London. Richard Todd plays optimistic but ineffectual soap and shampoo salesman John Cummings whose job becomes even harder when his new car is stolen. The theft triggers an unraveling of Cummings' life, and he channels his desperate energy toward retrieving his stolen vehicle. He first tracks it down through young tough Tommy Towers (pop star Adam Faith), who actually stole the automobile, and then to his boss Lionel Meadows (Peter Sellers), who heads the car thief ring. Meadows hides his sadistic tendencies behind the facade of a legitimate business. Above the garage he uses as a front, he has locked Tommy's girlfriend, Jackie (Carol White), in his apartment and appropriated her as his moll. Cummings tries to get the police involved, but they cannot act for lack of any evidence. He then earns the trust of Tommy and Jackie to get better knowledge of how Meadows operates his business. In his naïve attempts to confront the car ring, Cummings is at first treated as an annoyance, but as his intention to destroy Meadows' business and livelihood becomes clear, the crime boss vows to destroy him in turn. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide
Review
John Guillerman's overlooked film is a great pulpy British noir. Alun Falconer's dialogue is crisp and brutal, the camera angles and lighting by cinematographer Christopher Challis are as severe as anything shot by John Alton, and the narrative tensions are adequately frayed by the squealing horns of John Barry's big jazz score. Its macho pessimism approaches camp, but just enough to give the movie a healthy dose of self-aware amusement, never to undermine the story told. Peter Sellers exploits his comedic remove to make Meadows a terrifying offbeat villain, lending an ironic sneer to the calm-before-the-storm veneer that proceeds his character's violent outbursts. Besides being a rare dramatic turn for the actor, it's also one of the few performances where Sellers fits in and plays off the cast, instead of standing apart as an attention-grabbing star. The cast is uniformly strong, particularly Elizabeth Sellars as Cummings' loving but frustrated wife, Anne. The film is essentially a nasty riff on capitalism, with two temperamentally opposite, but similarly desperate men fighting to assert their manhood in a ruthless sink-or-swim urban environment. Upon release, the film gained some notoriety for its violence, primarily for Meadows' abusive treatment of Jackie and a scene where he crushes Tommy's hand in a record cabinet, and was banned in Finland. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide
George Provis - Art Director, Vi Murray - Costume Designer, John Guillermin - Director, Ralph Sheldon - Editor, John Barry - Composer (Music Score), John Barry - Musical Direction/Supervision, John Barry - Songwriter, Lionel Bart - Songwriter, Trevor Crole-Rees - Makeup, John Wilcox - Makeup, Christopher G. Challis - Cinematographer, Peter de Sarigny - Producer, Alun Falconer - Screenwriter
John Cummings (Richard Todd), a struggling salesman, buys a Ford Anglia car from Lionel Meadows (Peter Sellers) a London car dealer. Meadows, a criminal looking to make quick money, has a young petty thief Tommy Towers (Adam Faith) steal the car.
Cummings, who needed the car to keep his job, becomes desperate. He begins to become suspicious, and starts investigating the activities of Meadows and his associate Cliff (David Lodge). Meadows, disturbed by his inquiries, murders the only witness who could identify the carjackers.
Despite being warned off by the police, Cummings persists in his attempts to recover the car, even when his wife (Elizabeth Sellars) threatens to leave him and take the children away. He finds the weak link in Meadows' operation, his young girlfriend Jackie (Carol White) whom he continually threatens and abuses.
Taking Jackie under his wing, Cummings sets out to prove that he is correct and that Meadows is a major criminal, stealing dozens of cars. He eventually convinces the police, but even then, they are not too bothered at helping him recover his car. Cummings is forced to take the law into his own hands.
Reception
Critical reception to Never Let Go was mixed. A 1963 review of the film in the New York Times was unfavourable, describing Sellers "grinding his way through the rubble of a drearily routine plot" and attributed his performance in the film, different to his usual comedic roles, to "That itch to play Hamlet, I suppose; a desire to change his pace, which Mr. Sellers has often proclaimed he likes to do".[1]
