The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963)

Anthony Newley is at the top of his game here as the eponymous nightclub host who is way past his best. His lame one-liners have long since stopped engaging his dwindling number of punters who now only show up for a cheap drink and a eyeful. His on stage failures are not his only worries. He couldn't pick a winner in an one-horse race and is in hock to his bookie for money he can never hope to raise, and they are not about to let him off. He is also in love - but even that's complicated with "Patsy" (Julia Foster) being embroiled in the business he shares with the odious and sleazy "Gerry" (Robert Stephens). There's a who's who of solid supporting British characters here that help depict a Soho, now long gone, that did deserve it's nickname as a square mile of vice and depravity. Wilfred Brambles, Warren Mitchell and Roy Kinnear all add a gritty richness to the poignant adaptation of his BBC play by auteur Ken Hughes and it's clear from early on that an happy ending - for anyone - is most unlikely. Hughes conveys the seediness and the ghastliness cleverly. There's virtually nothing graphic, or even especially violent - here. That's all left to our imagination and to the gradually increasing sense that "Sammy Lee" has seen his finest hour. He just has to hope it's not soon to be his last. I didn't always like the Newley brand of Londoner, but in this he delivers engagingly and I almost felt sorry for him at times!