Hell is a City

In Val Guest’s Hell is a City, Stanley Baker, whose star power was blasting off at the time, plays Harry Martineau, a police inspector in Manchester, England, who’s determined to track down prison escapee Don Starling (John Crawford) whom Martineau had thrown in jail for jewelry theft a few years earlier. When a bank robbery leads to the brutal murder and roadside dumping of a female bank courier on the moors, Martineau is convinced it’s connected to Starling, who’s desperate for money, so orders surveillance of Starling’s old friends and enemies, including Chloe Hawkins (Billie Whitelaw), an old flame, and Furnisher Steele, an elderly antique dealer whose testimony led to Starling’s conviction. Amidst the work stress of rooftop shootouts, gambling raids, and interrogations, Martineau returns home each night to parry with his combative wife Julia (Maxine Audley) who refuses to bear him children. The film moves briskly, violent outbursts commingling with interpersonal drama, but in the end, Martineaus’s Manchester world remains stubbornly the same.