Clegg (also known as The Bullet Machine, Clegg Private Eye and Harry and the Hookers) is a 1970 British crime film directed by Lindsay Shonteff and starring Gilbert Wynne in his first starring film role. It was written by Lewis J. Hagleton.

Plot

Ex-policeman and now private detective Harry Clegg is hired by wealthy businessman Lord Cruickshank to investigate a death-threat letter he has received, which leads to a string of murders, some by Clegg himself.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in various locations around London including the Docklands and Highgate Cemetery, as well as in Paris.[citation needed]

Shonteff said in an interview: "It was made for peanuts [and] my blood ...The final budget was [$26,500 American] for a colour 35mm feature, which meant making a lot of tough deals, paying people very little money, and shooting in four weeks. But we finished it and the picture did okay."

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A pathetic attempt to transplant the private eye thriller to the British scene, high on violence and low on style. The hero's attempts to deliver his sub-Chandlerian wisecracks with the weary cynicism of a Philip Marlowe are merely embarrassing, while Lindsay Shonteff's idea of direction seems to be to squeeze in as many massive close-ups of guns, telephones and osculating lips as possible. 'It happens in all the Bogart movies,' says Clegg at one point: the trouble is that there it happens so much better."

External links