Sammy Lee is a small time cabaret act and MC at a strip club in the really seedy SOHO. He spends his days gambling on the horses, checking out the talent and shooting the breeze. When his debt is called in by the bookie boss, he has to think fast about how to pay it back. The boys come round to cement his position and get their bosses money, he negotiates breathing space of 5 hours in order to collect more money and cover the debt. Wheeling and dealing, scamming and slamming all the live long day but will he get the money or the beating?

I love a film that gives you a taste of a place you know like the back of your hand and love like the first summers day. For me films like Hope and Glory, Hue and Cry and American Werewolf in London are three great examples of films that take places I know and make them into tastes of my world. London is my home and the streets are my region of existence. Sammy Lee lives and walks London and Soho everyday and they are my everyday hangout. They have changed a large amount from this period but it still feels like a place that I am deeply connected too. It also feels a place that such stories happen in still and such lives are lived (even if to a far lesser extent.)

The small world of Sammy Lee is a rewarding historical film. It is also a compelling piece of tension cinema in its set up and the execution is sound. The story is coherent and keeps its acts paced well, balanced in the tone and with dynamic characters that are comical, seedy and tender. The surrounds are a marvel of clever set design and artful natural eye as are the great exterior scenes that feel alive. Also this is why the performances of the dancers and extras feels so real.

For me however the film is made on London’s communal connections. Connected as it was by vast ethnic groups Jew’s (Sammy is Jewish and has a brother who owns a kosher butcher in Soho.), Gays (the club is near to an openly gay bar), Blacks (many black people work around the film and are connected to Sammy), Irish (Conner is a mob boss for the Irish thugs) and working classes to name a few. It is also made on its dialogue that is still relevant and it shows that the person who translated it wasn’t listening to some of it as they missed very ‘native’ use of language. I have lived in London for long enough and know that some words mean things THAT the translator missed (prob not used in there private school.) Take the comment on Sammy being Jewish and having a sense of humour. Missed completely by the subs person. You can read as much as you like about culture people but go and live it…  My point however is that film is excellent and looks excellent. The extras are clearly top of their game and you must buy this!!!