“Just let it happen, Johnny. Let it happen.” Hammer Films teamed with micro-budget Lippert Pictures to produce Reginald Le Borg’s The Flanagan Boy (US: Bad Blonde), a solid enough — if completely unoriginal — British noir that essentially remakes The Postman Always Rings Twice within a boxing milieu. In the Lana Turner role, sexy Barbara Payton plays Lorna Vecchio, whose six-month marriage to the older boxing manager Giuseppe (Frederick Valk), a performance possibly inspired by eternal cuckold Hugo Haas, is a total farce (“When he touches me, I have to close my eyes so I can’t see him”). When Giuseppe brings home buff, blonde boxer Johnny Flanagan (Tony Wright), Lorna seizes the opportunity. As would be expected in noir, soon the adulterous couple is plotting her husband’s murder, a nicely done scene on a rowboat where the subjective camera peeks out from underneath a tarp. After the deed is done, Lorna is paid a visit by Giuseppe’s black-clad, Italian-speaking, village-raised mother (Marie Burke) who seems to have a better handle on Lorna’s true character than her son ever did. The physical chemistry and teasing between Lorna and Johnny are palpable (“I’ve seen better bodies hanging in a butcher’s shop”), even if Giuseppe’s stupid, drunken, obliviousness strains credibility. Cinematography is straightforward but Le Borg and crew inject noir style in a few key scenes, like when Lorna darts toward the oncoming train to feign a suicide attempt.