THE CRIMINAL (THE CONCRETE JUNGLE)

UK, 1961, 94 minutes, Black and white.
Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Gregoire Aslan, Margit Saad, Jill Bennett, Rupert Davies, Laurence Naismith, Kenneth J. Warren, Patrick Mc Gee.
Directed by Joseph Losey.

The Criminal, also known as The Concrete Jungle, is a very tough British prison film. It was written by Alun Owen, his first screenplay, before his prolific career as a writer, especially for television, including material for Ronnie Barker.

The film was directed by American Joseph Losey who had begun directing in the United States in the 1940s (The Boy With Green Hair) but was blacklisted and moved to England, making films under a pseudonym (The Sleeping Tiger) until it was safe for him to direct under his own name. He made a number of very tough films at this time in the UK, Eva, The Servant and King and Country. He continued to make striking films throughout the 70s and 80s, sometimes in France.

The film focuses on a character played by Stanley Baker, who takes part in a robbery, is informed on by an accomplice and goes to prison. In order to find out where he has stashed the money, he is tortured, his girlfriend taken and tortured, a film about corrupt police, brutal warders, thugs inside jail and outside.

The film has a very strong cast of prominent British character actors.

An important film in the canon of Joseph Losey.

1. The original title of this film was ‘The Criminal’. Where does this place the emphasis of the film? An alternate title was ‘The Concrete Jungle’. Does this shift the emphasis? How?

2. The film seems particularly ugly in its presentation, characters, atmosphere. Is this the point of the film? Does this make it too pessimistic? Is it necessary for audiences to see ugly worlds, ugly people and ugly actions? Why? Do you think this was in the director's mind when he made the film?

3. Comment on the effectiveness of the black and white photography and its implications for ugliness. Black and white for moral black and white? The background of the Johnny Dankworth music? The cleverness of the editing and its directness and pace?

4. Where did your sympathies lie during the film? Did you like any of the characters? How much sympathy did Johnny Bannion elicit? Or was part of the film’s impact the lack of audience sympathy?

5. How important were the prison sequences? Did the director intend them to be telling and with social comment? The style of prison life, the network of power and the prisoners? The personalities of the various prisoners, their crimes, the fact that they are all placed together, exercising their evil power on one another? The picture of the warders and the interaction between warders and prisoners? The personality of Chief Warder Barrows and his cold, metallic personality? What comment was being made on prisons via the character of Barrows? How effectively were the riot sequences filmed? The implications of these sequences? Did the film give valuable insight into English prisons? Cry for reform?

6. How interesting was the central character of Johnny Bannion? Even if he was not sympathetic? His self-esteem? His style in prison? His style as a gangster and when he left prison? Did his friends find him likeable or did they use him? The nature of his criminal mentality? Why was he as he was ? His big dreams and plans and his skill in executing them? The precarious nature of hie relationships with others? The fact that he could antagonise Suzanne and drive her to inform? How secure was his love for Suzanne? The fact that he could make mistakes and be sentenced again? His mistake in allowing himself to escape and show the criminals where the money was? The fact that ultimately he was defeated and died? His death as a commentary on his life? How well explored was the criminal and the criminal personality? Stanley Baker's performance?

7. How interesting were the criminals, especially Carter? How ugly were they in their humanity and their reactions on one another? Their greed and using one another? Their lack of scruples? Their greed? The comment on the reality of criminals?

8. The importance of Maggie for the film? What explained her personality? Her drunkenness? The dramatisation of the scene she created? The intensity of her jealousy and their understanding it? Her tip-off and the sequences of her informing? Bannion's fate as a result of his making Maggie jealous?

9. Was Suzanne, an interesting heroine? Was she merely, the usual type of character for this film?

10. How well-filmed were the robberies? Did this add to audience interest?

11. Did the film explore tellingly the nature of guilt and responsibility for crime? Or did it merely observe without exploring?

12. How was the irony of death and the criminals not knowing where the money was, an ironic comment on the whole proceedings? Did this give the film an added moral tone for its final impact on the audience?