Crossroads to Crime
Encyclopedia
Crossroads to Crime is a 1960 British crime film
, the directorial debut of Gerry Anderson
and the only motion picture of his production company, AP Films
. Known for his "Supermarionation
" television series of the 1950s and 60s (such as Thunderbirds
) which subscribed to the science fiction
genre and starred marionette
puppet characters, producer-director Anderson accepted an offer from distributors Anglo-Amalgamated
to shoot an hour-long, low-budget B film after development on Supercar
encountered distribution difficulties. Anderson's first production to include live actors
, Crossroads to Crime details the investigations of a police officer (Anthony Oliver) who, without support from his colleagues, confronts and brings down a ruthless vehicle hijacking
ring in an undercover mission.
Filmed predominantly on location
in England from May to June 1960, Crossroads to Crime includes cast members who appear in later Anderson productions. It incorporates an instrumental score from composer Barry Gray
who, along with other production personnel such as John Read
and David Elliott
, also continued their association with Anderson after the completion of the shooting. A box office
failure, Crossroads to Crime has attracted a range of critical opinions since its release in November 1960. Sometimes seen as a fair "cops and robbers" thriller, it has also been denounced for Alun Falconer's scripting, the editing of Elliott and the plainness of its sets due to its modest budget. The film has been screened once on British television since it ended its brief cinema run.
operating from the back of a transport café. After an unsuccessful pursuit of a car holding the café owner, Connie Williams (Miriam Karlin
), Sergeant Pearson (Arthur Rigby) scoffs at his concerns that the criminals are responsible for a spate of vehicle thefts along the A1 road. Deciding to start a private investigation of the group, Ross approaches Diamond (George Murcell
) and accepts bribes from the gangster as an assurance of his silence.
However, the officer continues to gather incriminating evidence as the hijackers steal a £10,000 consignment of cigarettes at Connie's café. While preparations are made for a further robbery — the target being a £20,000 load of nickel ingot
s — Ross joins the assault himself in a bid to topple the ringleader, Miles (Ferdy Mayne
). Diamond learns the truth of Ross's actions and threatens him with a gun. At this point, fellow gang member Johnny (David Graham
) shoots Diamond dead and reveals himself to be another undercover
police officer who has infiltrated the gang's set up.
from 1959 to 1960, Gerry Anderson
approached Anglo-Amalgamated
for work after broadcaster Granada Television
rejected his plans for a new Supermarionation
television series, Supercar
. Known for distributing such films as the Carry On series, Anglo-Amalgamated had helped to commission Four Feather Falls after accepting the series pilot
, and often produced low-budget B films with short running times to increase the proportion of British-made material in its output.
Desperate for a project from Anglo-Amalgamated's Wardour Street
financiers Nat Cohen
and Stuart Levy, and keen to establish himself as a motion picture director, Anderson agreed to make such a film on a low budget of £16,250 and without a contract. Alun Falconer, writer of the 1960 Peter Sellers
thriller Never Let Go
and crime drama The Unstoppable Man
, scripted the film. As an in-joke
, Four Feather Falls is referenced in dialogue when truck drivers stopping at Connie's café suggest a tune from the series soundtrack as the next jukebox
record.
Impressed with his performance in a West End
production of the Agatha Christie
murder mystery The Mousetrap
, Anderson cast Welsh actor Anthony Oliver in the lead role of Police Constable Don Ross. David Graham
, appearing as undercover agent Johnny, had starred in an episode of the television series Martin Kane, Private Investigator that Anderson had directed in 1957. A number of the cast contributed to later Anderson productions: George Murcell
(Diamond) provided the voice of Professor Rudolph Popkiss in earlier episodes of Supercar, while Graham voiced parts in Stingray
and Thunderbirds
.
Anderson recalls that German actor Ferdy Mayne
(Miles) on occasion misinterpreted the script, and that a scene between Oliver and Miriam Karlin
(Connie Williams) set at the café had to be reshot more than once when Karlin inadvertently upstaged Oliver, altering the arrangement of the sequence so as to obscure his face from the camera. Terence Brook, hired for the part of gang member Harry after being noted for his "tough-guy" appearance in an advertisement for Strand cigarettes
, had to be doubled by David Elliott
, the editor and second unit
director, in one stunt sequence which depicted the character jumping off the back of a lorry.
, Buckinghamshire
and Maidenhead
, Berkshire
for five weeks from May to June 1960. The location filming in Slough included the AP Films
Studio itself (appearing as the gang's warehouse), a café on the other side of the street (the main hideout), Burnham Beeches
and points along the A4 road. The production team also filmed briefly at Halliford Studios at Shepperton
, Surrey
. On one occasion, when the production had fallen behind schedule and a night shoot at the café had stretched into dawn, crew members attached black drapes to the windows to obscure the light and permit the filming to finish. Production staff such as John Read
, the cinematographer
, and Elliott remained associates of AP Films for later Anderson productions. Sylvia Anderson
performed the role of continuity supervisor
under her maiden name, Thamm. With production completed, Gerry terminated his first marriage and he and Sylvia married.
recorded his score in six hours on 21 June 1960, The opening titles music re-appears in the Supercar episode "The White Line", the Fireball XL5
episode "The Robot Freighter Mystery" and the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
episode "Manhunt". In a biography of Gray, it is suggested that the instrumental tone of the soundtrack is emulated in subsequent Anderson series such as Thunderbirds. To attain a U certificate
from the British Board of Film Classification
, Elliott dubbed over profanities such as "bloody
" (replaced with the milder "ruddy"). For the purposes of making the film accessible to American audiences, the post-production process also substituted references to "quid" as a British slang
term for the pound sterling
. The BBFC awarded its U rating on 26 July 1960.
possesses a print of the film, which screened at the Pictureville Cinema
of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford
in 1997 to commemorate Anderson's motion picture career. The tagline "£20,000 the Prize and Death the Price!" accompanied the original 1960 cinematic release.
reception of Crossroads to Crime has been poor since its release in November 1960, critical reaction has remained mixed. Anderson has branded his production "possibly the worst film ever made", while David Elliott
remembers it as "awful". In publicity for the puppet film Thunderbirds Are Go
in 1966, on the subject of Crossroads to Crime, Sylvia Anderson
stated, "The less said about it, the better". She affirms that it "hardly ranks as one of our best efforts". Unimpressed, Cohen and Levy did not offer Anderson further commissions for Anglo-Amalgamated
. However, Monthly Film Bulletin
stated, "Quick off the mark, this modest little thriller soon settles down into a routine 'cops and robbers' format, efficient if not always too convincing." In an October 1960 issue, Kine Weekly
credited Crossroads to Crime as being "refreshingly free from pretence" and added, "The film's moral is lofty, its tender domestic asides encourage feminine interest, and the climax is a corker."
Anderson biographers Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn describe Mayne as a "saving grace" for the film, but deem Barry Gray
's music overbearing and unsuited to the subject matter, stating, "Its innovative combination of booming brass
and twangy electric guitar
was possibly intended to evoke the contemporary sounds of Stanley Black
or John Barry
, but fell wide of the mark on both counts." Crossroads to Crime is summarised as "irredeemably compromised by its prosaic settings, convoluted screenplay and miniscule budget". Supermarionation
historian Stephen La Rivière asserts that the film is "remembered with dread" and that "the wafer-thin plot is a tedious affair", proceeding to criticise the editing for leaving a final cut that is "more than a little rough around the edges". He suggests that the little attention that Crossroads to Crime receives can be attributed to the fact that the Andersons later produced the highly successful television series Thunderbirds
.
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
, the directorial debut of Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
and the only motion picture of his production company, AP Films
AP Films
AP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s...
. Known for his "Supermarionation
Supermarionation
Supermarionation is a puppetry technique devised in the 1960s by British production company AP Films. It was used extensively in the company's numerous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson-produced action-adventure series, the most famous of which was Thunderbirds...
" television series of the 1950s and 60s (such as Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
) which subscribed to the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
genre and starred marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
puppet characters, producer-director Anderson accepted an offer from distributors Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy that operated from 1945 to the 1970s. Much of the output was low budget and often second features, many produced at Merton Park Studios...
to shoot an hour-long, low-budget B film after development on Supercar
Supercar (TV series)
Supercar was a children's TV show produced by Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis's AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment. 39 episodes were produced between 1961 and 1962, and it was Anderson's first half-hour series. In the UK it was seen on ITV and in the US in syndication...
encountered distribution difficulties. Anderson's first production to include live actors
Live action
In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...
, Crossroads to Crime details the investigations of a police officer (Anthony Oliver) who, without support from his colleagues, confronts and brings down a ruthless vehicle hijacking
Motor vehicle theft
Motor vehicle theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle...
ring in an undercover mission.
Filmed predominantly on location
Filming location
A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage...
in England from May to June 1960, Crossroads to Crime includes cast members who appear in later Anderson productions. It incorporates an instrumental score from composer Barry Gray
Barry Gray
Barry Gray was a British musician and composer who is best known for his work for Gerry Anderson.-Life:...
who, along with other production personnel such as John Read
John Read (producer)
John Read is a British television producer, cinematographer and director.He is widely associated with the productions of Gerry Anderson. Having served as director of photography on Four Feather Falls , Crossroads to Crime , Supercar , Stingray and Thunderbirds , Read worked on the latter series'...
and David Elliott
David Elliott (director)
David Elliott is a British television director and film editor, who worked on various series produced by Gerry Anderson.-External links:...
, also continued their association with Anderson after the completion of the shooting. A box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
failure, Crossroads to Crime has attracted a range of critical opinions since its release in November 1960. Sometimes seen as a fair "cops and robbers" thriller, it has also been denounced for Alun Falconer's scripting, the editing of Elliott and the plainness of its sets due to its modest budget. The film has been screened once on British television since it ended its brief cinema run.
Plot
Police Constable Don Ross (Anthony Oliver) uncovers a group of lorry hijackersMotor vehicle theft
Motor vehicle theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle...
operating from the back of a transport café. After an unsuccessful pursuit of a car holding the café owner, Connie Williams (Miriam Karlin
Miriam Karlin
Miriam Karlin, OBE was a British actress who worked on screen for over 60 years. She was best known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom , especially for her catchphrase "Everybody out!"...
), Sergeant Pearson (Arthur Rigby) scoffs at his concerns that the criminals are responsible for a spate of vehicle thefts along the A1 road. Deciding to start a private investigation of the group, Ross approaches Diamond (George Murcell
George Murcell
George Murcell was a British character actor. His first wife was Josephine Tweedy whom he married in 1953, and his second was the actress Elvi Hale whom he was married to from 1960 until his death....
) and accepts bribes from the gangster as an assurance of his silence.
However, the officer continues to gather incriminating evidence as the hijackers steal a £10,000 consignment of cigarettes at Connie's café. While preparations are made for a further robbery — the target being a £20,000 load of nickel ingot
Ingot
An ingot is a material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. Non-metallic and semiconductor materials prepared in bulk form may also be referred to as ingots, particularly when cast by mold based methods.-Uses:...
s — Ross joins the assault himself in a bid to topple the ringleader, Miles (Ferdy Mayne
Ferdy Mayne
-Early life:He was born Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel, in Mainz, Germany. His German father was the Judge of Mayence, and his half-English mother gave singing lessons. Because his family was Jewish, he was sent to England to protect him from the Nazis, and he stayed with his aunt, the photographer...
). Diamond learns the truth of Ross's actions and threatens him with a gun. At this point, fellow gang member Johnny (David Graham
David Graham (actor)
David Graham is a British character actor and voice artist. Born in London, after a period in the R.A.F as a Radar Mechanic he trained as an actor in New York but has worked mainly on British television series....
) shoots Diamond dead and reveals himself to be another undercover
Undercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
police officer who has infiltrated the gang's set up.
Production
Following the success of Four Feather FallsFour Feather Falls
Four Feather Falls was the third puppet TV show produced by Gerry Anderson for Granada Television, from an idea by Barry Gray.-Production:The show was made on a tight budget and could not afford sophisticated special effects...
from 1959 to 1960, Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
approached Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy that operated from 1945 to the 1970s. Much of the output was low budget and often second features, many produced at Merton Park Studios...
for work after broadcaster Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
rejected his plans for a new Supermarionation
Supermarionation
Supermarionation is a puppetry technique devised in the 1960s by British production company AP Films. It was used extensively in the company's numerous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson-produced action-adventure series, the most famous of which was Thunderbirds...
television series, Supercar
Supercar (TV series)
Supercar was a children's TV show produced by Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis's AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment. 39 episodes were produced between 1961 and 1962, and it was Anderson's first half-hour series. In the UK it was seen on ITV and in the US in syndication...
. Known for distributing such films as the Carry On series, Anglo-Amalgamated had helped to commission Four Feather Falls after accepting the series pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
, and often produced low-budget B films with short running times to increase the proportion of British-made material in its output.
Desperate for a project from Anglo-Amalgamated's Wardour Street
Wardour Street
Wardour Street is a street in Soho, London. It is a one-way street south to north from Leicester Square, up through Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street.-History:...
financiers Nat Cohen
Nat Cohen
Nat Cohen was a British film producer whose career started in the 1930s. He was the producer of several extremely controversial films including Peeping Tom and The Criminal...
and Stuart Levy, and keen to establish himself as a motion picture director, Anderson agreed to make such a film on a low budget of £16,250 and without a contract. Alun Falconer, writer of the 1960 Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
thriller Never Let Go
Never Let Go
Never Let Go is a 1960 British thriller film starring Peter Sellers and Richard Todd. It concerns a man's purchase, loss of, and attempt to recover a Ford Anglia car. Sellers played a London villain, in one of his rare straight roles.-Plot:...
and crime drama The Unstoppable Man
The Unstoppable Man
The Unstoppable Man is a 1960 British crime drama film directed by Terry Bishop and starring Cameron Mitchell, Harry H. Corbett, Marius Goring and Lois Maxwell.-Plot:...
, scripted the film. As an in-joke
In-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
, Four Feather Falls is referenced in dialogue when truck drivers stopping at Connie's café suggest a tune from the series soundtrack as the next jukebox
Jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...
record.
Casting
| Supporting cast | |||
| Actor | Character | Actor | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geoffrey Denton | Butler | Arthur Rigby Arthur Rigby (actor) -Selected filmography:* You Made Me Love You * The Deputy Drummer * The Prisoner of Corbal * Hold My Hand * The Blue Lamp * Small Town Story * The Blue Parrot * Dangerous Cargo... |
Sergeant Pearson |
| Peter Diamond | Escort Driver | David Sale | Young Man 1 |
| Patricia Heneghan | Joan Ross | Terry Sale | Young Man 2 |
| William Kerwin | Martin | Bill Sawyer | Lorry Driver |
| Victor Maddern Victor Maddern Victor Jack Maddern was an English actor.Born in Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex, Maddern was one of large group of dependable supporting actors that British film produced over the years.... |
Len | Donald Tandy Donald Tandy Donald Tandy in London, England) is a British actor who played Tom Clements in the BBC soap opera EastEnders -Career:Tandy started his career in 1950 when he got a place in a small budget film called Chance of a Lifetime.... |
Basher |
| Harry Towb Harry Towb Harry Towb was a Northern Irish actor.-Early life and career:Towb's father was Russian and his mother was Irish. He attended the Finiston School and Technical College, Belfast... |
Paddy | J. Mark Roberts | Phillips |
Impressed with his performance in a West End
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
production of the Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
murder mystery The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in the West End of London in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. It has the longest initial run of any play in history, with over 24,500 performances so far. It is the longest running show of the modern...
, Anderson cast Welsh actor Anthony Oliver in the lead role of Police Constable Don Ross. David Graham
David Graham (actor)
David Graham is a British character actor and voice artist. Born in London, after a period in the R.A.F as a Radar Mechanic he trained as an actor in New York but has worked mainly on British television series....
, appearing as undercover agent Johnny, had starred in an episode of the television series Martin Kane, Private Investigator that Anderson had directed in 1957. A number of the cast contributed to later Anderson productions: George Murcell
George Murcell
George Murcell was a British character actor. His first wife was Josephine Tweedy whom he married in 1953, and his second was the actress Elvi Hale whom he was married to from 1960 until his death....
(Diamond) provided the voice of Professor Rudolph Popkiss in earlier episodes of Supercar, while Graham voiced parts in Stingray
Stingray (TV series)
Stingray is a children's marionette television show, created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment from 1964–65. Its 39 half-hour episodes were originally screened on ITV in the UK and in syndication in the USA. The scriptwriters included Gerry and...
and Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
.
Anderson recalls that German actor Ferdy Mayne
Ferdy Mayne
-Early life:He was born Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel, in Mainz, Germany. His German father was the Judge of Mayence, and his half-English mother gave singing lessons. Because his family was Jewish, he was sent to England to protect him from the Nazis, and he stayed with his aunt, the photographer...
(Miles) on occasion misinterpreted the script, and that a scene between Oliver and Miriam Karlin
Miriam Karlin
Miriam Karlin, OBE was a British actress who worked on screen for over 60 years. She was best known for her role as Paddy in The Rag Trade, a 1960s BBC and 1970s LWT sitcom , especially for her catchphrase "Everybody out!"...
(Connie Williams) set at the café had to be reshot more than once when Karlin inadvertently upstaged Oliver, altering the arrangement of the sequence so as to obscure his face from the camera. Terence Brook, hired for the part of gang member Harry after being noted for his "tough-guy" appearance in an advertisement for Strand cigarettes
Strand (cigarette)
Strand was a brand of cigarettes produced by W.D. & H.O. Wills , launched in 1959 but withdrawn in the early 1960s. The launch was accompanied by a huge television advertising campaign, You're never alone with a Strand...
, had to be doubled by David Elliott
David Elliott (director)
David Elliott is a British television director and film editor, who worked on various series produced by Gerry Anderson.-External links:...
, the editor and second unit
Second unit
In film, the second unit is a team that shoots subsidiary footage for a motion picture. Its work is distinct from that of the first unit, which shoots all scenes involving principal actors...
director, in one stunt sequence which depicted the character jumping off the back of a lorry.
Filming
Shooting ran in and around SloughSlough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
and Maidenhead
Maidenhead
Maidenhead is a town and unparished area within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It lies on the River Thames and is situated west of Charing Cross in London.-History:...
, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
for five weeks from May to June 1960. The location filming in Slough included the AP Films
AP Films
AP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s...
Studio itself (appearing as the gang's warehouse), a café on the other side of the street (the main hideout), Burnham Beeches
Burnham Beeches
Burnham Beeches is an area of 220 hectares of ancient woodland, located close to Farnham Common, Burnham and Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire. It is approximately 25 miles to the west of London, England.-Preservation:...
and points along the A4 road. The production team also filmed briefly at Halliford Studios at Shepperton
Shepperton
Shepperton is a town in the borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, England. To the south it is bounded by the river Thames at Desborough Island and is bisected by the M3 motorway...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. On one occasion, when the production had fallen behind schedule and a night shoot at the café had stretched into dawn, crew members attached black drapes to the windows to obscure the light and permit the filming to finish. Production staff such as John Read
John Read (producer)
John Read is a British television producer, cinematographer and director.He is widely associated with the productions of Gerry Anderson. Having served as director of photography on Four Feather Falls , Crossroads to Crime , Supercar , Stingray and Thunderbirds , Read worked on the latter series'...
, the cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
, and Elliott remained associates of AP Films for later Anderson productions. Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson , born 25 March 1937, is a British voice artist and film producer, most notable for collaborations with Gerry Anderson, to whom she was married from 1962 to 1975....
performed the role of continuity supervisor
Script supervisor
A script supervisor is a member of a film crew responsible for maintaining the motion picture's internal continuity and for recording the production unit's daily progress in shooting the film's screenplay...
under her maiden name, Thamm. With production completed, Gerry terminated his first marriage and he and Sylvia married.
Post-production
Composer Barry GrayBarry Gray
Barry Gray was a British musician and composer who is best known for his work for Gerry Anderson.-Life:...
recorded his score in six hours on 21 June 1960, The opening titles music re-appears in the Supercar episode "The White Line", the Fireball XL5
Fireball XL5
Fireball XL5 is a science fiction-themed children's television show following the missions of spaceship Fireball XL5, commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol...
episode "The Robot Freighter Mystery" and the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
episode "Manhunt". In a biography of Gray, it is suggested that the instrumental tone of the soundtrack is emulated in subsequent Anderson series such as Thunderbirds. To attain a U certificate
History of British film certificates
-Overview:The UK's film ratings are decided by the British Board of Film Classification and have been since 1912. Previously, there were no agreed rating standards, and local councils imposed their own - often differing - conditions or restrictions...
from the British Board of Film Classification
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
, Elliott dubbed over profanities such as "bloody
Bloody
Bloody is the adjectival form of blood but may also be used as an expletive attributive in Australia, Britain, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, South Africa , New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Anglophone Caribbean and Sri Lanka...
" (replaced with the milder "ruddy"). For the purposes of making the film accessible to American audiences, the post-production process also substituted references to "quid" as a British slang
British slang
British slang is English language slang used in the UK. Slang is informal language sometimes peculiar to a particular social class or group and its use in Britain dates back to before the 16th century...
term for the pound sterling
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
. The BBFC awarded its U rating on 26 July 1960.
Distribution
Although Crossroads to Crime has not been released on home entertainment formats, it has been broadcast at least once on British television. The British Film InstituteBritish Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
possesses a print of the film, which screened at the Pictureville Cinema
Pictureville Cinema
Pictureville Cinema is a cinema auditorium located within the National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.Pictureville is one of the best equipped cinemas in the world. It is equipped for 35 mm, 70 mm, 2K resolution and Cinerama projection. The cinema features Dolby Digital EX, DTS...
of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
in 1997 to commemorate Anderson's motion picture career. The tagline "£20,000 the Prize and Death the Price!" accompanied the original 1960 cinematic release.
Reception
Although box officeBox office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
reception of Crossroads to Crime has been poor since its release in November 1960, critical reaction has remained mixed. Anderson has branded his production "possibly the worst film ever made", while David Elliott
David Elliott (director)
David Elliott is a British television director and film editor, who worked on various series produced by Gerry Anderson.-External links:...
remembers it as "awful". In publicity for the puppet film Thunderbirds Are Go
Thunderbirds Are GO
Thunderbirds Are Go is a 1966 British science-fiction film based on Thunderbirds, a 1960s television series starring marionette puppets and featuring scale model effects in a filming process dubbed "Supermarionation"...
in 1966, on the subject of Crossroads to Crime, Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson , born 25 March 1937, is a British voice artist and film producer, most notable for collaborations with Gerry Anderson, to whom she was married from 1962 to 1975....
stated, "The less said about it, the better". She affirms that it "hardly ranks as one of our best efforts". Unimpressed, Cohen and Levy did not offer Anderson further commissions for Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy that operated from 1945 to the 1970s. Much of the output was low budget and often second features, many produced at Merton Park Studios...
. However, Monthly Film Bulletin
Monthly Film Bulletin
The Monthly Film Bulletin was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a narrow arthouse release. The MFB was edited in the mid-1950s by David Robinson, in the late...
stated, "Quick off the mark, this modest little thriller soon settles down into a routine 'cops and robbers' format, efficient if not always too convincing." In an October 1960 issue, Kine Weekly
Kine Weekly
The Kinematograph Weekly, popularly known as Kine Weekly, was a trade newspaper catering to the British film industry. It was published in Britain between 1889 and 1971.-Publication history:...
credited Crossroads to Crime as being "refreshingly free from pretence" and added, "The film's moral is lofty, its tender domestic asides encourage feminine interest, and the climax is a corker."
Anderson biographers Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn describe Mayne as a "saving grace" for the film, but deem Barry Gray
Barry Gray
Barry Gray was a British musician and composer who is best known for his work for Gerry Anderson.-Life:...
's music overbearing and unsuited to the subject matter, stating, "Its innovative combination of booming brass
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
and twangy electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
was possibly intended to evoke the contemporary sounds of Stanley Black
Stanley Black
Stanley Black OBE was an English Bandleader, Composer, conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores and recorded prolifically for the Decca label...
or John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...
, but fell wide of the mark on both counts." Crossroads to Crime is summarised as "irredeemably compromised by its prosaic settings, convoluted screenplay and miniscule budget". Supermarionation
Supermarionation
Supermarionation is a puppetry technique devised in the 1960s by British production company AP Films. It was used extensively in the company's numerous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson-produced action-adventure series, the most famous of which was Thunderbirds...
historian Stephen La Rivière asserts that the film is "remembered with dread" and that "the wafer-thin plot is a tedious affair", proceeding to criticise the editing for leaving a final cut that is "more than a little rough around the edges". He suggests that the little attention that Crossroads to Crime receives can be attributed to the fact that the Andersons later produced the highly successful television series Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
.