The Shakedown – 1959 | 92 mins | Thriller, Crime | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Seedy and exploitative melodrama following a blackmailers attempts to extort money from respectable people whilst avoiding police arrest and a rival gangster. This typically gritty second-feature based on a screenplay by Leigh Vance and John Lemont features fast-paced direction but a sadly predictable storyline. The cast boasts many familiar faces beginning to make their mark on screen, including Terence Morgan, Donald Pleasence, Harry H Corbett, Bill Owen, Robert Beatty, Eddie Byrne and Edward Judd.

When convicted pimp Augie Cortona (Terence Morgan) is released from prison after a three-year stretch he is warned by Chief Insp. Bob Jarvis (Robert Beatty) that with new laws in place he’ll find it more difficult to earn a crust from illicit activities. Nevertheless, Cortona hits upon an idea for a new scam after a chance encounter with reformed alcoholic and photographer Jessel Brown (Donald Pleasence). Together they set up a photographic studio and model studio, but little does Jessel realise that it’s just a front for Cortona’s new sting; blackmailing men who come to the studio for pornographic after-hours photography sessions. His new venture attracts the interest of fellow crook Gollar (Harry H. Corbett) and the police; both of whom plant insiders within the studio. The chief victim of Cortona’s blackmail is outwardly-respectable bank manager John Arnold (John Salew), who is repeatedly bled dry until he finally refuses to pay anymore.