Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Hell Is a City (1959)

Director: Val Guest

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A persuasively sweaty crime thriller set in Manchester, written and directed by the once reliable Guest (from a novel by Maurice Proctor), this atypical Hammer production benefited from a strong cast and fine use of location photography (in 'Hammerscope'). Square-jawed Baker toughs it out as a harassed police inspector with a volubly frustrated wife (Audley) at home, and the arduous assignment on the streets of tracking down a jailbreaker (Crawford) wanted for murder. The atmosphere is persuasively seedy and downbeat, and there's a striking performance by Billie Whitelaw in a period when she seemed to specialise in 'fallen women'.

Author: DT

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Holiday film preview

Holiday film preview

Are you more interested in seeing the Daniel Craig movie, the Steven Soderbergh movie or the Freddy Rodriguez movie? Answer carefully.

Boyle's orders

The director of Slumdog Millionaire talks about the joys of filming on the cheap in India after having worked under Hollywood's thumb.

Time and again

Wong Kar-wai spruces up his underseen martial-arts epic, Ashes of Time.

Mergers and acquisitions

A new deal between the Underground Film Festival and IFP pays off.

Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema

The films we previewed offer very few reasons to kvetch.

Chicago International Film Festival preview

Mark Ruffalo cons us into liking The Brothers Bloom, plus early tips on films and surviving the fest.

Chain gang

Miranda July's "video chain letters" for women filmmakers get some respect at the Siskel.