Hell Is a City

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'.