The Flanagan Boy (1953)

Director:

Reginald Le Borg

Writers:

Max Catto (novel)
Guy Elmes (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

10 April 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Made of FIRE and ICE... and everything DANGEROUS!

Plot:

A scheming blonde seduces a fighter and convinces him to murder her husband, a fight manager. |

Plot Keywords:

Blonde | Wife | British Noir | Affair | Seduction

Cast

Barbara Payton	...	Lorna Vecchi
Frederick Valk	...	Giuseppe Vecchi
John Slater	...	Charlie Sullivan
Sid James	...	Sharkey (as Sidney James)
Tony Wright	...	Johnny Flanagan
Marie Burke	...	Mother Vecchi
Selma Vaz Dias	...	Mrs. Corelli, Vecchi's sister
Enzo Coticchia	...	Mr. Corelli
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chris Adcock	...	Booth Man (uncredited)
John Brooking	...	Barnes (uncredited)
Roy Catthouse	...	Black Fighter (uncredited)
Tom Clegg	...	Tattooed Fighter (uncredited)
Bettina Dickson	...	Barmaid (uncredited)
Ralph Moss	...	Kossov's Second (uncredited)
Joe Quigley	...	Lou Kossov, fighter (uncredited)
Bob Simmonds	...	Booth Man (uncredited)
Ian Wilson	...	Audience member with thick glasses (uncredited)
George Woodbridge	...	Police Inspector (uncredited)

Directed by
Reginald Le Borg

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Max Catto		novel
Guy Elmes		screenplay
Richard H. Landau		screenplay (as Richard Landau)

Produced by
Anthony Hinds	....	producer

Original Music by
Ivor Slaney

Cinematography by
Walter J. Harvey		(as Walter Harvey)

Film Editing by
James Needs

Art Direction by
C. Wilfred Arnold		(as Wilfred Arnold)

Makeup Department
Nina Broe	....	hair stylist
Philip Leakey	....	makeup artist (as Phil Leakey)

Production Management
John 'Pinky' Green	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jimmy Sangster	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Bill Salter	....	sound recordist
Peter Davies	....	sound re-recordist (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Len Harris	....	camera operator (as Leonard Harris)

Music Department
Ivor Slaney	....	conductor

Other crew
Renée Glynne	....	continuity
Patrick Jenkins	....	dialogue director (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Hammer Film Productions (in association with)
• Lippert Films

Distributors

• Exclusive Films (1953) (UK) (theatrical)
• Lippert Pictures (1953) (USA) (theatrical)
• Kit Parker Films (2004) (USA) (all media) (copyright holder)
• VCI Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Bad Blonde (USA)
The Woman Is Trouble

Runtime:

USA:81 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16250) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Berlin - Ecke Schönhauser (1957)

Who's the star in this knockoff noir? Beefcake Wright or bad girl Payton?

Much as 1948's Whiplash was a cross-knockoff of two John Garfield vehicles (Body and Soul, Humoresque), Bad Blonde grafts Body and Soul to The Postman Always Rings Twice, then transplants the hybrid to alien English soil. At a carnival boxing concession, young Johnny Flanagan (Tony Wright, who looks like young John Kennedy) takes up the challenge and reveals himself as quite the pugilist. Concessionaire Sid James, a savvy judge of boxing talent, sees his opportunity to make a comback in the prizefight racket. He gets Wright signed up with rich old Italian promoter Frederick Valk, who on a recent tour of America has brought back Barbara Payton as a souvenir.

When Wright catches a furtive glimpse of Payton smoothing a stocking along her thigh, he's struck tongue-tied. She's not so bashful, licking her lips as she rakes her eyes up his torso, stripped for the ring. Soon, under the guise of training at Valk's country manor, they're having clandestine clinches in the bracken. But, it apparently being true about leaving one's fight in the bedroom, Wright starts losing his timing, and, more urgently, an important match Valk arranges, thus jinxing his career. But Payton has money, or rather will have once her husband goes down for the count. She feigns a suicide attempt and a pregnancy, then dangles the possibility of murder. The diffident Wright, thinking the child is his, falls in with the plan...

Somebody besides Payton must have been obsessed with Wright's body: The camera finds every opportunity to linger over it, in the ring and under the water, in trunks and towels and bathing briefs. Did this male-fixated aspect of the movie, originally titled The Flanagan Boy with Wright its title character, cause sufficient panic to have the movie renamed and remarketed? As Bad Blonde, it capitalizes on Payton's aggressive allures, soon to be available on the open market: The actress would drift into tabloid scandals, check-kiting and ultimately prostitution. Only four more films would remain before her last, Murder Is My Beat, in 1955. Twelve years later she would be dead of alcohol-related causes.