The lowdown:  'Appointment With Crime' is a British film noir drama starring William Hartnell in one of the few films
in which he had top billing. He plays Leo Martin, a small-time villain who works for Gus Loman (Raymond Lovell), a
gangster who runs a dance-hall as a front for his criminal activities. Loman selects Martin for a smash-and-grab job on
a jewellery store: Martin simply has to smash the store's window, grab the loot and run. Loman and his driver, Hatchett
(Victor Weske), are waiting in a getaway car, but the plan goes wrong when the store's security screen comes down,
breaking Martin's wrists. Loman and Hackett drive off, abandoning Martin. He is convicted of felony, and vows revenge
against Loman. When Martin gets out of jail he asks Loman to give him a job, arguing that he owes him that for letting
him down. Martin sets up a meeting with Loman, and then goes to the dance-hall, where he befriends one of Loman's
girls, Carol Dane, who charges sixpence per dance. He kills Hatchett using Loman's own gun, intending to frame him
for the murder, using Carol as an alibi. He tells the police that he could not have killed Hatchett as he was buying an
orange-ade drink for Carol at 9pm, when Hatchett was killed. Martin had bought the drinks earlier and hidden them.

Respectable art dealer Gregory Lang (Herbert Lom) is revealed as the crime gang's real mastermind. The gun actually
belonged to Lang, and Loman had borrowed it for protection. Lang decides that Loman has become a liability and has
him murdered, and sets his sights on Martin. Some of his men pose as policemen and take Martin to a warehouse,
where Lang forces him to reveal the gun's location. Martin refuses to do so until Lang's men threaten to break his wrists.
Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Rogers (Robert Beatty) is assigned to the Hatchett case, and quicklys finds that Martin
does not have a valid alibi. Martin could not have bought orange-ade at the time of the killing because the refreshment
kiosk had sold out 30 minutes earlier.

Martin agrees to meet Lang and hand over the gun in return for money, but Lang intends to have him killed. Martin kills
Lang and goes to Carol's apartment, asking her to go away with him. She agrees to do so, but changes her mind after
Rogers tells her that Martin is a murder suspect. Rogers is waiting on the train, and Martin tries to climb out the train
window, but again breaks his wrists when the window is accidentally shut on his hands during a struggle with Rogers.

Who connections:  Robert Beatty appeared as General Cutler in The Tenth Planet.

Video clips:   Smash and grab             6.7mb         Martin and Loman    4.4mb        Framed for murder    2.6mb
Video clips:   Loman visits the police    6.2mb         Lang and Martin       4.7mb       Martin is arrested      4.6mb
 
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