The Worst Film Ever

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

An absolute waste of money

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

Bad boy Peter Reynolds has a back story - would be getaway driver who panics and leaves his companions to be caught bang to rights outside the bank. Unusually this important bit of action with which the film starts never comes back to bite him nor play any further part. He instead swans off to Devon to cadge lodgings from his rather estranged bachelor shotgun-toting uncle who though surly nevertheless does the decent thing.Something Reynolds does not reciprocate, casually thieving from all who put any trust in him. An unexpected visitor in form of an attractive young woman (Elizabeth Sellars) arrives who he mistreats, giving great offence to his uncle. The bad boy departs the scene, leaving just the young woman remaining with the uncle. Later another unexpected visitor, an older woman arrives and joins the two. The situation, for good reasons, is exceedingly uncomfortable indeed impossible for all three.Beautifully shot on location, it is a pleasure to watch. The story is perhaps old-fashioned, resembling in outline at least a Victorian novel particularly the stiff-upper lipped decent rather taciturn uncle. But it is 1950 and rural rather than city ways so is believable. However modern viewers evidently find the moral dilemmas tiresome and the lack of violent action (spoiler alert - the shotgun is neither fired nor even brandished) in consequence boring. But if you see through the eyes of the participants, it is quite gripping at times and end completely believable.

I'm prejudiced in favour of GIMS because a lot of it was filmed in Devon c1950, just before I moved to the county, and I'm prone to nostalgia. I liked the scenes shot in Ashburton and the agricultural fair - very evocative of simpler - perhaps happier - times.Putting aside the Devon content, the film is a reasonable post-war low-budget film. Before seeing it, I hadn't been aware of Peter Reynolds, who came over as a type like David McCallum in his young tearabout roles. Elizabeth Sellars reminded me a little of Joan Collins, but nicer. And in a pub scene one can glimpse "Q" himself - Desmond Llewelyn. Apart from the token Devonshire accent, everyone seemed to speak every so nicely.Film industry conventions of the time demanded that people should pay for their crimes, whatever the provocation, and there were no great surprises at the end.The only jarring note was the scene in the foggy churchyard.GIMS was one of the best things I saw on TV over the Christmas-New Year period - which may not say much for everything else!Incidentally, there's a brief scene of a small train arriving at "Welford Station" - perhaps the branch line terminus at Ashburton. There was actually a Welford Park station on the Lambourn Valley Railway, north west of Newbury, that served the hamlet of Welford.

Elizabeth Sellers was the only reason to bother with this. Roy Kellino was a journeyman writer/director at best and if he's remembered at all in the future it will be as the first husband of James Mason's wife, Pamela, and possibly for his partnership with Mason. It's a clumsy plot that's not sure whether it wants to be a thriller, rural idyll, or psychological drama. With no back-story we watch a getaway driver flee from a failed bank robbery and travel to Devon where an uncle puts him up temporarily. Next thing a wife turns up and again there is no back story. The man, Jamie, makes no attempt to be anything other than a bad lot so it's no surprise when he gets it where the chicken got the axe. There's still about three reels to go but Kellino is totally unable to milk it for suspense so it more or less peters out.

Shifty crook, Jamie (Peter Reynolds), driver of the getaway car for a London bank robbery, drives off when he sees that the robbery has gone wrong. He ends up at his uncle's remote Devon farm where he tends to abuse the cold hospitality offered. After obtaining work at a garage in the local village, he chats up the easy middle class 'tart', Betty (Lana Morris), stealing from Kit, his uncle (Patrick Holt), to treat her, and himself. He receives a telegram from his wife, Linda (Elizabeth Sellars), to say that she is on her way down by train, and persuades his uncle, who had not known he was married, to let her stay at the farm. As there is only one bed, Kit agrees to sleep in the barn whilst Jamie is able to sleep more comfortably, with his wife, in Kit's bed. After a bad start, Kit and Linda get on well with each other, whilst selfish Jamie continues lying, stealing and his liaison with Betty One evening, Jamie meets up with his girlfriend, thieving from his employer's till to cover 'expenses'. The following day, Linda discovers him stealing from Kit's 'safe' in order to repay his employer. A struggle ensues, ending with Linda protecting herself with a heavy candlestick, accidentally killing her husband. She confesses to Kit who buries Jamie's body near the blocked entry to a disused tin mine. To all intents and purposes, Jamie has gone away, and eventually Kit and Linda's relationship develops into love, fuelling gossip in the village. Suddenly Jamie's mother, Kit's sister, arrives to see how her son is, but Linda's guilt overcomes her and she suffers concussion falling downstairs. In this state, she thinks the local doctor is her late husband, and the doctor hears her saying Jamie's name and that she had killed him. The police arrive the following morning, tipped off by the doctor, and whilst they are searching the old mine shaft, Kit explains all to his sister, who, although disappointed and saddened, will not say anything to the authorities. The police find nothing but, as they are leaving, Linda asks them to stay, and the film ends with us anticipating that Kit and Linda will tell them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! So help me - not a bad film to while away half a wet afternoon. Purely for local interest - the 'village' locations were mainly filmed in East Street, Ashburton, Devon. Tillingham's garage was situated between 'The Golden Lion' and 'The Red Lion' at the top of the hill. The stone 'folly' on the opposite side of the road, at the junction with Roborough Lane, is still there, and was probably a water trough for horses, or for washing clothes. One scene, filmed at the junction of North Street, looking up East Street, shows part of the Bank where I worked in the early 1960s!