Many of the cast and the same director also made In the Nick (1960).
Plot
Electrician Bert Harris boasts that he is a successful cat burglar, which leads to his getting mixed up with real thieves who need those special skills for a big jewellery heist. However, Bert was only making a "song and dance" about being a cat burglar. He discovers that it is too late to back out.
Frank Williams as man whose bowler hat is knocked off in the market
Production
The book's author Rex Rienits later admitted that he disliked writing novels, but was in a career slump, so decided to write a novel to sell for cinematic rights.[2]
Filming started 15 June 1959.[3] A scene involving more than 200 extras was shot at Chislehurst Caves in Kent; on that night, the payroll was stolen, meaning they could not be paid.[4]
Critical reception
Variety called it "an odd assortment of romance, jazz, musical comedy and youthful crime is poured into Jazz Boat. ...What comes out is largely chaos although some of it is infectiously amusing. Mostly it is vague, disjointed and purposeless. Director Ken Hughes may have been making some sort of an attempt at parody of American crime pix."[5]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A juvenile crime story barely strong enough for a B-feature, with guitars smashed over skulls in place of wisecracks as its type of humour, is given a few largely irrelevant songs and a bizarre mixture of characters to become a lively, muddle-headed British musical. ... Anthony Newley's offhand way of jesting gets few chances from the script and, compared with the spirited caricaturing of David Lodge and Al Mulock in the gang, leaves him a most ineffectual hero. The general farce and fantasy mix uneasily with the violent episodes, the more brutal of them centred round a detective, who is not only churlish and quick-fisted in the latest film style but handy with a broken bottle as well."[6]
TV Guide wrote, "While imitating American gangster films, this simple picture also provides a look at the British "Teddy Boy" subculture as some amusing situations, though none is particularly memorable."[7]
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