Nightbeat

NIGHTBEAT struck me with its premise. "After the war is over, two army pals take opposite paths in civvy street. One becomes a petty criminal, the other becomes a policeman" Right away I was reminded of ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES where two characters make their own decisions which will test their friendship. This isn't how things unravel

Right from the outset there's a distraction and that is the two protagonists are shown wearing British army uniforms with sergeant strips. No matter the nationality of a sergeant they're all from working class stock but the characters speak with entirely posh accents that not one person in Britain speaks anymore , not even the British royal family, In fact in comparison to the two sergeants the Queen sounds like she comes from a sink council estate. This is painfully distracting to this egalitarian reviewer

As I said the plot doesn't really follow the ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES route and I found myself constantly wondering why the story couldn't have been told much better. It's not a terrible film but I did expect more from a British film noir and it's impossible to have convincing working class rough characters when they're played ex public school sounding people