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

Plot Synopsis

Wolf Rilla‘ low-budget feature, Piccadilly Third Stop, came out the same year as his landmark Village of the Damned, and is the story of a burglary committed from the Underground on an embassy in Knightsbridge. Leigh Vance’s screenplay is packed with incidents of theft, blackmail, smuggling and adultery, and is directed with pace and style by Rilla as it sizzles with excitement through to a notably thrilling underground sequence. The cast, too, is not without its noteworthy performances and there’s some good support for star Terence Morgan from double-crossing moll Mai Zetterling, and, in particular, William Hartnell, who gives one of his inimitable portrayals of disciplined villainy.

Following a 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 (John Crawford), Dominic works his charms on the innocent Fina and schemes to rob her father’s safe. Knowing he will need to form a gang and raise capital, Dominic approaches 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-friend Toddy (Charles Kay) and top cracksman Colonel Whitfield (William Hartnell).  Their scheme involves entering Belgravia tube station in the early hours and walking down the track to a disused tunnel branching off the Piccadilly line to enter the foreign embassy’s basement; butwhilst the gang are gaining entry, apprehended Toddy is cracking under interrogation in a nearby police station.