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The Counterfeit Plan

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1957 British film by Montgomery Tully

The Counterfeit Plan
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMontgomery Tully
Written byJames Eastwood
Produced byAlec C. Snowden
Richard Gordon
StarringZachary Scott
Peggie Castle
CinematographyPhil Grindrod
Edited byGeoffrey Muller
Production
company
Amalgamated Productions
Distributed byWarner Bros
Release date
  • 1 January 1957 (1957-01-01)
Running time80 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Counterfeit Plan is a 1957 British crime film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Zachary Scott and Peggie Castle. It was written by James Eastwood.

Plot summary

A gang of criminals, led by sociopath Max Brant, escape from France and set up a counterfeit operation to make British £5 and American $20 notes, in the cellar of a large English country house now owned by Louie Bernard. Brant forces Bernard, who worked for the British Government during WW2 making foreign counterfeit currency, to make the master die plates by holding his daughter, Carole an artist, as a hostage. When Bernard finds out that Brant has tried to rape his daughter and has killed his housekeeper, Gerta, because she witnessed the attempted rape, he anonymously posts one of the forged £5 notes to the police with a letter describing the counterfeit operation. When Brant is told about this by Duke, he confronts Bernard. Meanwhile, the police slowly close in on the gang's headquarters.

The film features professional snooker world champion Horace Lindrum in a cameo appearance playing himself. This is used as cover for one of the meetings with other criminals to discuss the sale of the forged British £5 notes to them. Another similar meeting is camouflaged as a boxing match.

Cast

Production

The film was the first of three between Amalgamated Productions and Anglo-Amalgamated.

Reception

According to Tom Weaver in The Horror Hits of Richard Gordon, the film was very popular in the UK.

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "An uneven thriller marred by a dull script and some unskilful make-up, which has the effect of prematurely ageing several of the players, notably Peggie Castle. The scenes depicting the actual forgery processes are not without interest but are spoilt by constant repetition, and the contrived ending constitutes a poor anti-climax."

Picturegoer wrote: "The melodramatic trimmings are nonsense, the characterization cursory, despite astute performances from Scott, Mervyn Johns and Sydney Tafler."

References

  1. "The Counterfeit Plan". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
  2. The Counterfeit Plan at the BFI Database
  3. Weaver, Tom (2011). The Horror Hits of Richard Gordon. Bear Manor Media. p. 19. ISBN 978-1593936419.
  4. "The Counterfeit Plan". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 24 (276): 32. 1 January 1957 – via ProQuest.
  5. "The Counterfeit Plan". Picturegoer. 33: 17. 7 February 1957 – via ProQuest.

External links

Films directed by Montgomery Tully
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