'The Challenge' (1960) – John Gilling.

'The Challenge' (1960) is a stylishly mounted, frequently volatile, jazzy-cool early 60s Brit-Noir by extremely versatile Hammer Horror alumnus John Gilling, who consistently proved himself to be equally adept at crafting exciting, flint-edged pot-boilers along with his bravura, bodice-ripping, blood-chilling Gothic shockers! This compelling, well above average crime thriller has a cracking cast of agreeably familiar genre faces, with super charismatic screen icons Jayne Mansfield & Anthony Quayle making for an attractive, if somewhat tempestuous pair of ill-fated lovers. And it might be a fair assessment to claim that maestro John Gilling's shadow-steeped, cult crime caper The Challenge's more demonstrative charms are not so much hard-boiled, as fabulously full-bodied!!!

The circuitously double-dealing, gun-powdered plot is mesmerically matched by the no less fascinating twists and turns of The Challenge's preternaturally pulchritudinous star! This bracing, sporadically violent, action-packed B-Thriller finds the affable, hard luck Jim Maxton (Anthony Quayle) in shtook, having being used as a Patsy by an especially duplicitous, grubby-looking mob of scheming blaggers, glamorously led by deliciously Machiavellian matriarch Billy (Jayne Mansfield). Dynamically paced, competently written, 'The Challenge' percolates potently until its locomotive climax which delivers a deadly kick like a strychnine-laced espresso! The brooding, commanding actor Anthony Quayle is a seething ball of repressed anger, with the high-voltage, bra-burstingly buxom B-Movie bombshell Mansfield providing some welcome luminosity to this crepuscular crime caper!