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Wide Boy is a late edition to the post-war 'spiv' cycle, which had
articulated a mood of cynicism and disillusion that counter pointed Labour's New
Jerusalem. By the time the film went on the floor, the semi-comic image of the
spiv was being superimposed onto a new, more violent folk devil: the cosh boy -
vividly represented by Dirk Bogarde in The Blue Lamp (d. Basil Dearden, 1950). Wide
Boy's anti-hero, Benny Mercer, is a man with a battered suitcase rather than a
battering cosh, and a little old to be a juvenile delinquent. He seems to have
been living on his wits since he was demobbed (or avoided conscription).
Sydney Tafler is natural casting as the shifty black-market entrepreneur, as
is Ronald Howard (son of Leslie) as a police inspector. Tafler had specialised
in shady characters since his first role in Robert Hamer's It Always Rains on
Sunday (1947). Wide Boy was his fourteenth film in four years, which gives some
idea of both his popularity and the pace of picture production at the time. His
leading lady is Susan Shaw, who had also been the object of his attentions in
Hamer's film.
Wide Boy is another cautionary tale, this time warning of the too easy
escalation from pretty crime to something altogether more deadly. Benny inhabits
a world of knocked-off nylons and greasy-spoon Italian cafes, but is courting a
high-maintenance blonde who aspires to something more than the 'small-time'
Benny offers. She has glimpsed an entirely different lifestyle, led by the
clients of the 'face factory' (beauty parlour) in which she labours. Benny sets
out on his disastrous attempt to milk the middle classes on her behalf as much
as his own.
Director Ken Hughes displays a keen awareness of class differences and,
although opportunities for character development are strictly limited by the
film's brief running time, he manages to avoid caricature and sketches a series
of contrasting milieus with the authenticity brought by the careful observation
of detail. Hughes also takes the trouble to make sure that, while conventional
morality is upheld, we retain some shred of sympathy for his wide
boy.
Steve Chibnall
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