Piccadilly Third Stop – 1960 | 78 mins | Crime | B&W

Plot Synopsis

WolfRilla’ low-budget feature, Piccadilly Third Stop, came out the same year as hislandmark Village of the Damned, and is the story of a burglary committed fromthe Underground on an embassy in Knightsbridge. Leigh Vance’s screenplay ispacked with incidents of theft, blackmail, smuggling and adultery, and is directedwith pace and style by Rilla as it sizzles with excitement through to a notablythrilling underground sequence. The cast, too, is not without its noteworthy performancesand there’s some good support for star Terence Morgan from double-crossing mollMai Zetterling, and, in particular, William Hartnell, who gives one of hisinimitable portrayals of disciplined villainy.

Followinga London society wedding, small-time thief Dominic Colpoys-Owen (Terence Morgan)charms Fina (Yoko Tani), daughter of a Far Eastern ambassador who keeps a £100kin the diplomatic safe. Tired of running errands for American smuggler Preedy (JohnCrawford), Dominic works his charms on the innocent Fina and schemes to rob herfather’s safe. Knowing he will need to form a gang and raise capital, Dominicapproaches gambling boss and underworld fence Edward Humphries (Dennis Price),but he refuses to back the plan.

Instead,Dominic turns to hard-up Preedy, and completes his quartet with close-friendToddy (Charles Kay) and top cracksman Colonel Whitfield (William Hartnell).  Their scheme involves entering Belgravia tubestation in the early hours and walking down the track to a disused tunnelbranching off the Piccadilly line to enter the foreign embassy’s basement; butwhilst the gang are gaining entry, apprehended Toddy is cracking underinterrogation in a nearby police station.