The Counterfeit Plan is a 1957 British crime film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Zachary Scott and Peggie Castle.[1]
Plot summary[]
A gang of criminals, led by sociopath Max Brant (Zachary Scott), 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 (Mervyn Johns). 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 (Peggie Castle), an artist, as a hostage. When Bernard finds out that Brant has tried to rape his daughter and has killed his housekeeper, Gerta (Chili Bouchier), 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 (Lee Patterson), 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[]
- Zachary Scott as Max Brant
- Peggie Castle as Carole Bernard
- Mervyn Johns as Louie Bernard
- Sydney Tafler as Harry Flint
- Lee Patterson as Duke
- Eric Pohlmann as Frank Wandelman
- Robert Arden as Bob Fenton
- Chili Bouchier as Gerta
- John Welsh as Police Inspector Grant
- Aubrey Dexter as Joe Lepton
- David Lodge as Sam Watson
Production[]
The film was the first of three between Amalgamated Productions and Anglo-Amalgamated. It was very popular in the UK.[2]
References[]
- ↑ The Counterfeit Plan at the BFI Database
- ↑ Tom Weaver, The Horror Hits of Richard Gordon, Bear Manor Media 2011 p 19
