During the fifties it became common for American actors to cross the pond and play in UK productions. In rare cases - Gregory Peck - they were still on top of their game but in the majority of cases - Richard Basehart, Van Johnson, Dana Andrews - they had either never quite fulfilled early promise or were slipping from leads to supports. This was the case with Zachary Scott who started with a bang in Mask Of Demetrious and went on to tasty fare like Mildred Pierce but was never quite able to grasp the brass ring. Here, cast as usual as a ruthless villain, he appears to be ill but even then he has little problem bullying milquetoast master forger Mervyn Johns out of retirement for a major score - forging around a million pounds' worth of the old white fivers. It is, of course, doomed to end in tears but does weigh in with some interesting technical skinny on the art of the forger. One for VERY wet Sunday afternoons.
Review of The Counterfeit Plan
