Nelson Keys enjoyed a fairly successful career in the theatre between the wars while his four sons wound up in the movie business three of them on this very title, Basil as Assistant Director, Anthony Nelson as producer,whilst the director was John Paddy Carstairs who actually changed his name to avoid charges of nepotism (the fourth son, Rod Nelson Keys, was a film editor). Carstairs was a solid journeyman and helmed dozens of B pictures in a fairly pedestrian career. This title finds a young, lacklustre Dickie Attenborough walking through a potboiler alongside his wife, Sheila Sim, whose insipid performance shows why she chose early retirement. The proceedings are littered with second-eleven thesps working, presumably, for a stick of gum, led by a badly miscast Barry Jones and including Garry Marsh, Danny Greene and Diana Dors. Oxford Street an alley in Accrington, a thriving Palais-de-Danse is located in a back street and Attenborough wears gauntlets to drive a taxi. Like the man said, they don't make them like that any more.
Review of Dancing with Crime
