Recoil (1953) User Reviews

British B

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 5 August 2019]

Recoil is one of those British B's I love so much. This one stars Kieron Moore and Elizabeth Sellars.

A woman (Sellars) poses as a crook in order to get evidence against the jewel thief who killed her father.

Pretty good - something about Sellars reminded me of Jackie O, around the eyes.

Good acting, interesting story.

brilliant film noir by John Gilling (2)

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 7/10 · 19 March 2019]

John Gilling wrote and directed this film noir in 1953, 10 years before the excellent "Panic". This story is more conventional, a young woman recognizes her father's killer and she seduces him until she has the opportunity to make him fall. The casting is ok but not fantastic. But there are some good action scenes, from the car chase in the beginning (but we're not yet in 1967-68 when Peter Yates directed "Robbery" and "Bullitt") to tough fights (nearly like in Phil Karlson's films noirs). Worth a look.

Avenging Angel

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 23 November 2020]

The 'other' Ian Fleming plays the lovely Elisabeth Sellars' father and Edward Underdown and Keiron Moore are rather unlikely siblings in this talky but well-acted and languidly ruthless little crime drama with the usual atmospheric photography by co-producer Monty Berman and some surprisingly violent action.

Olde Worlde British movie

[rxelex · 7/10 · 23 April 2021]

A low budget effort with silly complicated plot and storyline about postwar London crooks. Interesting shots of long vanished warehouses and vehicles.

Love interest is between curiously faced Elizabeth Sellars and prematurely aged Edward Underdown who looked old enough to be both her father and his own mother!

Silly shoot out in warehouse filmed in daylight but crook runs to car in dark!

Martic Benson looks very nice with a moustache and he dies very convincingly after the crook shoots him.

Worth watching for the historical street scenes and fashions.

Scissors needed!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 9 November 2012]

John Gilling is one of the more talented directors who worked on British "B" pictures. This one starts off most promisingly with a high-speed car chase. It also comes to a fair climax in a deserted mansion AFTER an action shoot-out in a warehouse. There are also a couple of convincing fight scenes.

Otherwise, however, this is very much a formula British "B"-picture affair. Mousey heroine-turned-detective Elizabeth Sellars tries hard to look seductive despite the director's poor choice of camera angles. Worse still, the script is padded with lots of time-wasting talk by drearily conceived characters and even less convincing players. Unfortunately, director Gilling seems to have fallen in love with his own script. At least 15 minutes of this excessive padding should have been trimmed before the film went into release.

Hackneyed unconvincing thriller

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 20 November 2013]

The film starts out promisingly enough.Kiernon Moore kills a jeweller during a robbery.This is witnessed by the jeweller's daughter Sellars,who the grapples with him.She decides to make her own investigations and visits crooked Martin Benson.In the building she recognises Moore but he doesn't recognise him.From here the film runs downhill fast.She actually gets lodging with Moores' doctor brother ,Underdown.She supposedly becomes Moores' lover with the idea of breaking the alibi that Underdown has given his brother.Events then get sillier and sillier till a climax which although supposed to be at night is clearly shot in the day.It is a potboiler which fails to convince or entertain.

Great movie in the style they don't make any longer - regrettably ...

[spottedowl · 8/10 · 29 August 2008]

The gorgeous Elizabeth Sellars stars in this gripping drama, though IMO wrongly cast she plays the part well in her usual faultless style.

Her father is killed in a heist gone wrong and the criminal is seen by Jean (Elizabeth) but cleverly sets up an alibi which is unable to be faulted by the police. Jean then sets about trying to trap the killer (Edward Underdown) by whoring herself to him, much to the chagrin of Underdown's brother who has innocently supplied the alibi and thinks that Jean is the cat's pajamas.

Cleverly working her way into the confidence of the killer and his cohorts, Jean keeps the police updated on the coming plans of the gang while the brother starts to realise he's been dudded into giving false information.

A wonderful 'B' movie that moves along at a great pace with good acting and direction. The only downside seems to be the casting of some of the players - Edward Underdown and Keiron Moore as brothers? - tends to make one think of 'Twins' with Danny de Vito.

Don't miss it if you get the opportunity. --- 8/ 10.

Slightly plodding B-flick

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 19 May 2016]

RECOIL starts off on a strong footing with a well-directed action scene before descending into watchable, but slightly tedious, fare. I think what this film really lacks is a decent protagonist. Kieron Moore is fine as the anti-hero of the piece, but as the investigating hero, Elizabeth Sellars fails to cut the mustard. She doesn't have much in the way of charisma, and her acting isn't really up to scratch either.

The plot is quite simplistic and concerns the fortunes of jewel thieves who invariably fall out. B-movie director supremo John Gilling makes such to include plenty of fist fights to keep his narrative moving but these seem superfluous to the actual plotting and are merely included to keep audiences awake. The ending is quite lively but then it needs to be to make up for the routine hour that preceded it.

Very basic and unconvincing plot

[Marlburian · 4/10 · 16 March 2023]

I like low-budget old B & W films shot in postwar London and am usually forgiving about their shortcomings, but I found the plot of "Recoil" too basic and almost insulting to the viewer. It was a little difficult to accept that Nicholas didn't recognise Jean in his brother's waiting-room, and even more so when he didn't do so immediately at their next encounter. And it was impossible to believe that she could mask her feelings sufficiently to become, presumably, his lover.

I can accept the age gap of 13 years between Edward Underdown and Elizabeth Sellars, but he failed to convince as an attractive alternative to his brother.

OK, the length of the film was limited -and other reviewers have suggested that some footage could have been cut - but how unrealistic that someone could come in off the street and see a doctor without the receptionist taking a few personal details.

Moore and Sellars did well enough, but the old cars - especially the taxis - were more noteworthy than the supporting cast.

Recoil

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 2 April 2023]

When "Jean" (Elizabeth Sellars) witnesses the killing of her jeweller father "Talbot" (Ian Fleming) she vows to bring him to justice. Meantime respected physician "Conway" (Edward Underdown) has just treated his badly beaten brother "Nicholas" (Kieron Moore). Family loyalty and all that, he agrees to say the two were playing chess together that evening - but we know that they weren't, we also know what he was doing - and so, unbeknown to him, does "Jean". When the two accidentally meet, she sets out to use all of her guile and wits to ensnare him. The thing with this is that the inevitability of the denouement isn't really helped by a poor script and some really mediocre acting efforts. Moore usually imposed a little more on the screen but here the whole ensemble - never helped by the one-gear Martin Benson - just seems to waddle along for an hour before an ending that just wasn't ever in doubt. There is an effort to broaden the scope of the story by involving the mother (Ethel O'Shea) who is well aware that one of her sons is a decent cove and the other, less so - but that doesn't really give us enough to raise this from the realms of pedestrian B-feature. Certainly, it's not a bad film and it's an easy enough watch - but it is not one you will recall for long.

Very good

[AAdaSC · 8/10 · 7 June 2009]

Jean (Elizabeh Sellars) witnesses the murder of her father, Talbot (Ian Fleming) by Nicholas (Kieran Moore) during a jewelry robbery. The man behind it all is Farnborough (Martin Benson) but Nicholas has kept back some jewels for himself to bargain with Farnborough so that they can become equal partners. Farnborough rejects his deal and so begins a rival gang-war. Meanwhile the police are after Talbot's killer and Nicholas gets his brother, Michael (Edward Underdown), to provide an alibi for him. Jean rents a room in the same house that Michael has a doctor's practice so that she can befriend Nicholas with the purpose of revealing him as the killer. Both brothers fall in love with her and this brings extra dramatic tension to the story.

The film follows how Jean gains Nicholas's confidence (with the police in the background), the war-fare between Fanborough and Nicholas's gangs, and the drama between Nicholas and his brother who don't see eye-to-eye. On a personal note, I didn't care much for the scenes with the mother (Ethel O'Shea) and I found it hard to believe that Nicholas and Michael were brothers because of their different accents! However, its a well-acted, tense story that is played out at a good speed.

Super stylish mystery.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 16 March 2023]

Jean Talbot watches in horror as her father, a jeweller is robbed and attacked by a gang of thugs, she learns the identity of the ring leader, and poses as a criminal in order to bring him down.

It's a very stylish noir b movie, if you're a fan of this genre, there is plenty here to enjoy, the first thing that struck me was the rather excellent cinematography. Some great road sequences, and the theatre scenes looked impressive, this is a super good looking film.

The story, you could perhaps argue that there isn't anything new here, however, it's refreshing to see what is effectively a female lead in a thriller, Jean is very much the hero of the piece, beautifully played by Elizabeth Sellars.

It's well paced, it's gritty, and features a few rather surprising moments, the main question I had, was Jean going to fall in love with Michael?

John Horsley was rather good as The Detective, Kieron Moore and Edward Underdown were excellent as the very different brothers, and I just loved Ethel O'Shea's subtle but strong performance as the troubled mother.

8/10.

The doctor's dilemma

[clanciai · 8/10 · 23 March 2021]

The interesting thing about this film is the psychology. Dr. Michael Conway is a well situated doctor who attends to his duties and takes care of his mother, but he has a brother who is of the opposite sort. After a robbery that goes wrong he is sorely beaten up and almost killed in a car accident but gets away and to his brother to bandage him up. Later he asks his brother to tell the police that they played chess together all evening, and the brother, being a conscientious doctor sticking to the obligation of silence and all that, grants his brother that alibi, without suspecting that in the failed robbery his brother accidentally killed the robbed jeweller, who was no one less than Ian Fleming. But the jeweller has a daughter, (Elizabeth Sellars), who happened to be there at the time, and accidentally she runs into the murderer of her father and will never forget his face. The major part of the messy intrigue is about her very roundabout efforts to build up evidence against him - she even deigns to let him woo her just to get closer to him to get him nailed. There are many crooks involved in this, and there are many hard blows and shootings, chases by night and rival gangs trying to gun down each other, piling up the mess, while at least Doctor Michael manages to keep out of trouble, realising far too late that he unintentionally contributed to the mess by protecting his brother. Alas, the main victim becomes their mother. It's thick thriller, well written and well played, and the direction (by John Gilling who also wrote it) is qualified enough. Elizabeth Sellars, fresh from "The Broken Horseshoe", was good at suave ambiguous roles with covert intentions, and here even her father's murderer is deceived by her, while it is impossible to grant Kieron Moore any sympathy.

Crime drama or love story?

[theauthorteddytunstall · 9/10 · 22 March 2023]

A woman seeks revenge for the death of her father. She tracks down the murderer and when she falls for the murderer's brother, she can't reveal her true feelings as she has to pretend to be in love with the murderer until she gets the evidence that can convict him of his crime. Some quite emotionally powerful scenes when she, by necessity, gets romantic with the murderer but we know her true feelings and we fear her losing the other brother.

At 42 mins - Sellars turns on the sex appeal that made her a star - the sultry looks, the silky voice, the gorgeous clothes, the sheer femininity - she could be red hot without needing to take off her clothes. You ought to see her purring in "The Broken Horseshoe".

Crime drama or love story?

[theauthorteddytunstall · 9/10 · 21 March 2023]

A woman seeks revenge for the death of her father. She tracks down the murderer and when she falls for the murderer's brother, she can't reveal her true feelings as she has to pretend to be in love with the murderer until she gets the evidence that can convict him of his crime. Some quite emotionally powerful scenes when she, by necessity, gets romantic with the murderer but we know her true feelings and we fear her losing the other brother.

At 42 mins - Sellars turns on the sex appeal that made her a star - the sultry looks, the silky voice, the gorgeous clothes, the sheer femininity - she could be red hot without needing to take off her clothes. See her purring in "The Broken Horseshoe".