Highlights are the girls, Mela White (pre-Bergerac) and Susan Travers, with their trashy look, high-pitched Cockney accents and bleached blonde hair. What a lovely time they're having, going to the movies or to the coffee-bar - an alternative to the pub that's open in the evening and provides endless cups of coffee, hits on the jukebox, and amusing beatniks. Our hero George the ex-con enjoys sketching the types (and he's not bad - I hope he gets that job at the commercial art studio).
I also enjoyed the furniture shop that employs George and Susan T, the undercover cop. She takes her stand in front of a large ad for Ercol, and hipsters would simply adore that modernist sideboard.
All this is a contrast to the ex-prisoners' hostel - a survival from the Edwardian era (only 50 years previously), with aspidistras everywhere and a lady in a flowery apron called Ma.
George makes just one visit to his middle-class mother (we only get a glimpse of her house's plushy interior), but we learn enough to understand something of what made him rob shops instead of joining the army or studying law. Or perhaps he just prefers coffee-bar life with girls like Mela and Susan. I don't blame him.
I also enjoyed the furniture shop that employs George and Susan T, the undercover cop. She takes her stand in front of a large ad for Ercol, and hipsters would simply adore that modernist sideboard.
All this is a contrast to the ex-prisoners' hostel - a survival from the Edwardian era (only 50 years previously), with aspidistras everywhere and a lady in a flowery apron called Ma.
George makes just one visit to his middle-class mother (we only get a glimpse of her house's plushy interior), but we learn enough to understand something of what made him rob shops instead of joining the army or studying law. Or perhaps he just prefers coffee-bar life with girls like Mela and Susan. I don't blame him.