The Man in the Back Seat

Plenty of low-budget “quickie” crime films in Britain and beyond are bad movies, but some manage to use their restricted time and space and money to mine a noir diamond that feels exactly right. Such is the case with Vernon Sewell’s The Man in the Back Seat, based on a short story by Edgar Wallace (note: the film is not part of the Edgar Wallace Mysteries series shot at Merton Park Studios during the same period.) Two best friends, the charming yet callous Tony (Derrin Nesbitt) and uptight Frank (Keith Faulkner), knock out a bookie leaving the racetrack to steal his winnings, but they never expected the sack of cash to be handcuffed to him for security purposes. Rather than abandoning the mission, Tony demands they lift the body into the car so they can find a way to separate the sack and return the body unharmed. This absolutely brilliant idea obviously won’t work out as planned. Set entirely at night and primarily inside and around a car, the film follows their driving, hiding, bickering, and lying to police, not to mention both a flat tire and running out of gas, until they meet their just desserts. Carol White plays Frank’s wife Jean, constantly angry and befuddled by her husband’s dedication to Tony (“Why didn’t ya marry him instead of me?”) and their ongoing shenanigans. (Indeed, one can easily read a gay dynamic into the thieves’ relationship.) Just like in Robert Wise’s The Body Snatcher (1945), the final sequence features the sudden ghost-like appearance of the criminal’s victim in the back seat, a manifestation of guilt that adds a flair of horror.