Ambush in Leopard Street

Ambush in Leopard Street is a low budget 1962 British 'B'^[1] black and white crime film directed by J. Henry Piperno and starring James Kenney, Michael Brennan and Bruce Seton.^[2][3][4] It was written by Ahmed Faroughy and Bernard Spicer.

Ambush in Leopard Street
UK quad
Directed by	J. Henry Piperno
Written by	Ahmed Faroughy Bernard Spicer
Produced by	Bill Luckwell Jock MacGregor
Starring	James Kenney Michael Brennan Bruce Seton
Cinematography	Stephen Dade
Edited by	Norman Cohen
Music by	Wilfred Burns
Production companies	Bill and Michael Luckwell Ltd.
Distributed by	British Lion-Columbia Distributors (UK) (as BLC Films Ltd.)
Release date	1962 (1962)
Running time	72 mins
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Premise

Harry is a small time crook who plans one last job before he retires, but things do not go quite according to plan. With his sidekick Nimmo, the plan is to ambush a truck containing £500,000 of diamonds in Leopard Street, but heavy security means recruiting a larger criminal gang than usual, and the inexperienced newcomers may derail Harry's scheme.

Cast

• James Kenney as Johnny
• Michael Brennan as Harry
• Bruce Seton as Nimmo
• Norman Rodway as Kegs
• Jean Harvey as Jean
• Pauline Delaney as Cath
• Marie Conmee as Myra
• Charles Mitchell as Big George
• Lawrence Crain as Danny
• Muriel O'Hanlon as Lily
• Sheila Donald as Val
• Jack O'Reilly as Hibbs

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Even the climax, the actual ambush, lacks punch in this routine and unconvincing crime thriller. The acting is adequate, but suffers from confined production and a more than usually weak story."^[5]

Kine Weekly described the film as: "a dicy British 'second'."^[6]

Chibnall and McFarlane in The British 'B' Film called the film an "impoverished crook drama."^[1]

In Forgotten British Film: Value and the Ephemeral in Postwar Cinema Philip Gillet wrote: "[J. Henry Piperno's] direction can be pedestrian, the fight between the two gangs being cursory and clumsy, though constraints on time and budget doubtless contributed to this. The language of the cockney villains sounds contrived, but what the film has in its favour is a story with the stark simplicity of Greek tragedy: man uses woman, man becomes emotionally involved with her, man lets her down."^[7]

Home media

The film was released on DVD in 2013.^[7]