Radio Cab Murder (1954)

Lana Morris

Good British B about a cab driver who goes undercover to bring down a robbery gang.

A woman robs a travel agency of foreign currency at gunpoint. On the way out she fires a few shots to keep everybody in place. She hops in a stolen cab. Cab driver Fred Martin (Jimmy Hanley) spots the getaway cab and chases after it. The woman takes off her disguise and tosses some nails out the window. Fred gets a flat and slams the cab into a stone bench. The bad guy and girl getaway.

An anonymous letter is received by Fred’s boss wondering why they would have an ex safecracker working for them. The boss gets mad and takes the letter to the police. Fred was in stir for three years after pulling a job. He learned safecracking in the military and even took a course at Scotland Yard.

He’s gone straight since getting out of jail and his boss has absolute faith in him. One of the dispatchers, Myra (Lana Morris) is his fiancee. Inspector Rawlings says there’s a gang working the area that blackmails ex cons into working for them. They ask Fred to go undercover and he agrees. An unhappy Myra will be the go between.

To keep the plan secret Fred’s boss pretends to fire him. That gets the drivers mad and they threaten to strike unless he’s reinstated in seven days. They can’t be told what’s really going on. Finally Fred’s old cellmate makes contact. The gang is planning an elaborate bank robbery. They need Fred to blow the safe.

Fred tells Myra where the bank is and she passes the message to the cops. Of course they told Fred the wrong bank. Now the job is underway and the cops raid the wrong bank. The job goes almost smoothly but they get away with it. Back at the hideout a woman named Jean tells the others that Fred was the driver who chased her. He’s in trouble now. It’ll take the fleet of radio cabs to get him out. There’s a nice ending. It’s quick but still decent.

Aside from movies, Lana Morris appeared in a lot of British TV series. Her last was as Vanessa Rolfe on “Howards’ Way” (1987-90).