7/10
Rather nasty UK noir
29 May 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I grab a handful of discs and start firing them into the machine. I've seen this, seen that, and so on and so on. By the 5th disc I decide I'm too lazy to get off the couch again. I stick with the one that's playing. I've seen it before but never on a decent TV, so I let it play.

It is the 1957 UK production, THE FLESH IS WEAK. The film features John Derek as the headliner. It is an "expose" noir about the prostitution racket in the U.K. Derek is a pimp who preys on the naive, "just off the bus" young women who come to the big city for fame and fortune.

He wines and dines them and after a few rounds of clutch and grab the girls go for the smooth talker. He gets them a place to stay, a few jewels, some nice duds and even finds them a job. The job of course ends up to be a "hostess" in a gentleman's club. The girls fall for the line and before they know it they are out on the street paying back the DEBT.

Millie Vitale plays the new girl who has just been turned out by Derek. She quickly decides the life is not for her and decides to quit. She has discovered that Derek is part of a ring that has several dozen girls turned out. The pimps let her know that a large knife to the neck is what she will get if she leaves.

In order to teach Vitale a lesson, Derek arranges for her to get busted by John Law on a knife assault charge. She refuses to talk to the police out of fear and takes her six-month bit. She has time to think and decides to go straight when she gets out.

This idea however goes south when Vitale finds Derek waiting at the prison gates on release day. She now knows the only way out of the "game" is to turn State's evidence. She tells all she knows to the police and Derek and his boys soon find themselves on the wrong side of the prison walls.

The cast includes William Franklyn, Martin Benson, Freda Jackson, Patricia Jessel and Patricia Plunkett.

The director was Don Chaffey who is best known for "Jason and the Argonauts". He also worked on series like, "The Prisoner", "Danger Man", "The Avengers", "Charlie's Angel's" and "MacGyver".

I really liked the look of the film where the dark alleys and streets of post war London are put to good use. It is a rather blunt and to the point film for 1957.

There are no vague suggestions about the subject matter here. Right from the start we know what the story is about. John Derek is particularly good as the smooth talking pimp. He plays it all smiles but is more than happy to apply a knife here and there if needed. I found it a excellent time-waster.
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