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Jazz Boat is a 1960 British musical comedy film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Anthony Newley, Anne Aubrey, Lionel Jeffries and big band leader Ted Heath and his orchestra.

Jazz Boat
British quad poster
Directed by	Ken Hughes
Written by	John Antrobus Ken Hughes
Based on	novel by Rex Rienits
Produced by	Albert R. Broccoli Harold Huth
Starring	Anthony Newley Anne Aubrey Bernie Winters James Booth
Cinematography	Ted Moore Nicolas Roeg
Edited by	Geoffrey Foot
Music by	Kenneth V. Jones
Production company	Warwick Films
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures (UK) Columbia Pictures (US)
Release date	February 1960
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Many of the cast and the same director then made In the Nick (1960).

Plot

Electrician Bert Harris (Anthony Newley) boasts that he's a successful cat burglar, which leads to him getting mixed up with real thieves who need those special skills for a big jewellery heist. However, Bert was only giving them a "song and dance" about being a cat burglar, but now discovers it's too late to back out.

Cast

• Anthony Newley as Bert Harris
• Anne Aubrey as The Doll
• Bernie Winters as The Jinx
• James Booth as Spider Kelly
• Leo McKern as Inspector
• Lionel Jeffries as Sergeant Thompson
• David Lodge as Holy Mike
• Al Mulock as The Dancer
• Joyce Blair as Rene
• Jean Philippe as Jean
• Liam Gaffney as Spider's Father
• Henry Webb as Barman
• Ted Heath as himself
• Frank Williams as Man whose bowler hat is knocked off in the market

Production

It was based on a novel by Rex Rienits. Rienits later admitted he disliked writing novels but was in a career slump so decided to write a novel to sell to the movies.[1]

Filming started 15 June 1959.[2] A scene involving more than 200 extras was shot at Chislehurst Caves, Kent; on that night the payroll was stolen meaning they could not be paid.[3]

Critical reception

Variety called it "an odd assoilment of romance, jazz, musical comedy and youthful crimeas What comes out is largely chaos although some of it is infectiously amusing. Mostly it s vague, disjointed and purposeless. Director Ken Hughes may have been making some sort of an attempt at parodv of American crime pix."[4]

The MFB called it "a lively, muddle headed British musical."[5] TV Guide wrote, "While imitating American gangster films, this simple picture also provides a look at the British "Teddy Boy" subcultureassome amusing situations, though none is particularly memorable";[6] while Leonard Maltin called it an "Energetic caper."[7]

Filmink said it "starts out as a crime drama then weirdly turns into a musical (complete with dance numbers) then back into a crime drama again/"[8]

References

External links

• Jazz Boat at IMDb
• Jazz Boat at Letterbox DVD
• Jazz Boat at Rotten Tomatoes

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