The Breaking Point (1961)

"Eric" (Peter Reynolds) has expensive tastes, and an unsavoury gentleman of ill-repute knows it! His gaming tables become a regular haunt for the young man, and the IOUs he has to leave behind each time start to accumulate. Soon, he's in a cul-de-sac that he can only escape by providing sensitive information about a currency job that is being carried out by his family printing business. Once he's in, there's no getting out and soon he is embroiled in a complex heist that will settle his debts but probably ruin his family life in the process. Luckily, he has wife "Cherry" (Joanna Dunham) and her pal "Robert" (Dermot Walsh) who are sensitive to his changing behaviour and soon smell a rat. Lance Comfort keeps it moving along well enough for an hour, but the story is just as flat as the acting and by the end I was willing the criminals to succeed despite it being certain they wouldn't. The denouement itself is simply disappointing and implausible in equal measure and left me wondering if this is all just really a moral message about no easy wins. Afternoon cinema fodder that you'll soon forget.