MI5's most chaotic loner crashes a criminal gang like it's happy hour.
When Scotland Yard finds themselves up against a brick wall in tracking down a vicious gang of thieves and bank robbers, they call in Layton, a loner from MI5 to work his way into the gang and help bring them down.
Acting
Sylvester's smirk hides acres of damage — watch his eyes in the mirror scene.
Direction
Owen packs a feature's worth of double-crosses into 71 minutes.
Director
Cliff Owen
William Sylvester
Layton / Steve Ross
Mai Zetterling
Ruth Lombard
John Meillon
Johnny Hemick
Anthony Dawson
James Dawson
Neil McCarthy
Leo Farrell
Joseph Fürst
Paul Varna
Harry Baird
Gill Hall
John Phillips
Chief Superintendent Gault
Victor Brooks
Inspector Adams
Diana King
Maggie Dawson
Gerard Heinz
Jake
Ronald Adam
J. B. Wykeham
Neil Wilson
Pat Ryan
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
William Sylvester later played Dr. Heywood Floyd in 2001: A Space Odyssey — this is his earthbound dry run for looking stressed in rooms.
Offbeat arrived at the tail end of British B-picture production, when studios were cramming complex espionage plots into hour-long slots before television killed the format entirely.
GB
