Such a frustrating disappointment

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Blistering performances.

The idea behind "Never Let Go" is a sound one, even though its core idea may have been somewhat inspired by the classic Italian movie "Bicycle Thieves". And in the end, the movie isn't a BAD one. It's pretty well produced on what wasn't a Hollywood budget, for one thing. And it interests you enough to make you watch to the end to see what will happen. Still, there are a couple of big problems that hold the movie back from greatness. The movie starts off well, but as the protagonist continues his search for his stolen car and increases the intensity of his investigation, sympathy for him is severely worn down. People get hurt by his obsession, for one thing. Then there is Peter Sellers' performance. This wasn't the only completely straight role Sellers had during his career, but this one suggests why he didn't go for that many more straight roles. He's okay when his character is calm, but when his character gets angry or aggressive, he puts in too much of an effort and becomes kind of a cartoon. Still, fans of Sellers may find the movie of interest to see their idol try something much different.

An English drama from the dawn of the Profumo era pits down-on-his-luck cosmetics salesman John Cummings (Richard Todd) against the crooked garage man Lionel Meadows (Peter Sellers) who has his stolen car, in a movie that mixes some earnest action with unconvincingly overwrought set pieces."Never Let Go" made a splash in its time for its adult situations and language, earning a rare X rating though it plays rather tame today. Today it is remembered mostly by hard-core Peter Sellers fans relishing the chance to see our man play it real nasty. In fact, Sellers was said to have been so distended by the demands of his performance that he took it out on his wife Anne, contributing to their eventual divorce.It's hard to say the sacrifice was worth it. "Never Let Go," as I see it, is hampered by two major faults.Fault #1 - It's stuck in the trappings of its own larger metaphor, of what England had become after World War II. Cummings, like the actor playing him, is a war veteran who expected more from life after returning home.It starts out with the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" performed with bitter gusto by teen idol Adam Faith, who plays the guy who steals the car here, Tommy Towers. The car, a Ford Anglia as we are often told, represents England, and Tommy's hangout is portentously called the Victory Cafe."Old boy, I've never had it so good," John tells a co-worker just as his car is stolen, in a line echoing the successful campaign slogan of the Tory administration then in power. That Anglia means too much to him, way too much, and also to Meadows, who won't let some "lousy lipstick peddler" make trouble for him even if he has to make more trouble for himself than any normal minded thief would allow. Meadows, too, seems stuck on the overriding metaphor of this film.Fault #2 - Sellers' performance is an example of a good actor pressing too hard on a weakly written role. Whether brutalizing a witness in broad daylight or forcing his way into Cummings' home ("Nice place you got here! Whaddya pay, fourpence a week?"), Meadows runs too hot to be convincing. Like other reviewers have noted here, Sellers does himself no favors with his clenched-teeth, eye-rolling performance. In one scene, he spews gobs of spit swearing his vengeance. Director John Guillermin asks us to accept a story where no one ever pauses for breath.Poor Cummings is unable to let go, even when his own wife Anne (Elizabeth Sellars) tries to reason with him. "You're not tough enough, Johnny," she tells him, which of course is exactly the wrong thing to say. Also not helping is the officious police detective who tells him to stay out of this while the case meanders along a seemingly hopeless path.Todd bulges his eyes as much as Sellers, but he finds his footing in the film's second half, as the story becomes a pretty gripping revenge tale. "Never Let Go" might have played better as a comedy, given the lengths to which this poor schlep goes, but you do feel for him and there is an effective payoff that rewards you some for sticking with such silly preliminaries as Meadows roughing up his kept girl Jackie (Carol White, a. k. a. "The Battersea Bardot").If "Never Let Go" was less earnest, it might have worked much better. Instead you get an over-amped performance piece for Sellers that undercuts the frail authenticity of the rest of the piece. You can't fault the man for trying to spread his wings, but this is one time Sellers would have been better off letting go.

John Cummings (Richard Todd) is a mediocre cosmetic salesman who's a chronic loser: always chasing rainbows but living a humdrum life with a wife who loves him but might be running out of patience. He buys a new car to help with his sales route but fails to insure it, so when a local thug (Adam Faith) steals it to deliver to the crime boss (Peter Sellers) he's in debt and has no transportation except London buses. His sales start to dwindle as he misses appointments and begins to lash out at clients (and co-workers).He becomes obsessed with getting his car back, which he sees as the key to a good life. Through a grubby newspaper salesman (Mervyn Johns - you may know him as Bob Cratchit in the Alastair Sim "Scrooge"), he works his way up the food chain until he finally confronts the very sadistic Sellers. The police offer no help, and Todd's wife is threatening to leave him if he won't give up his quest.I wondered why I had never seen this film before. The answer might lie at the beginning of the trailer: this was given an "X" rating in England when it was released. That doesn't mean "porn" but it does mean "adult content" - including language, fairly graphic violence, and strong hints of sexuality. It was probably too hot for most American TV outlets in the 60s and 70s and wasn't a big enough hit to warrant any special treatment. It's a fairly standard gangster thriller but has good performances by the main characters, and a score by John Barry that occasionally rises above the mediocre.

Not for the first time and probably not the last I find myself in the minority; two possibilities present themselves; 1) I'm hard to please, 2)the majority of the posters here are easy to please, go figure. Clearly the aim here was to show that Peter Sellers could do something more substantial than the Goon Show and Adam Faith could do something besides mouth banal lyrics occasionally on key. Sellers idea of 'straight' acting is to say everything through clenched teeth, shout a lot and throw, stamp on and/or break things. As added insurance director Guillerman pits him against Mr. Balsa-Wood Richard Todd to whom he evidently gave the direction 'look wounded and act dogged'. There are, as it happens, a couple of decent actors along for the ride but Elizabeth Sellars, Noel Wilman and Mervyn Johns are largely wasted. Basically we're talking Bicycle Thieves with an English accent and a faux-jazz score used to point out that 'menace' and 'violence' are about to occur. Let it go, you'll thank me in the end.