"An underrated, seldom-mentioned noir masterpiece...the shiny suit of British cinema. Carter (Michael Caine) is a London gangster who finds out his brother has been offed back home in Newcastle...The color's dark, murky in London, and in Newcastle it gets watery, runny, and bland. England looks bleak here, and its inhabitants, exemplified by Carter and company, seedy and nasty. It's the lower depths striving to look respectable and it doesn't work. They know it, too. The moment Carter sets foot in town the Newcastle hoods are on his case...It's a cold shot movie, with Caine cruel, clever, and deliberate...Hodges has the action raw and quick: Carter's either fucking, shooting, throwing somebody off a roof, or observing. You can see his brain registering and computing and plotting...We don't like Carter-he's a sociopathic, perverse murderer-but we respect his lack of pretense...Life is for shit, he seems to be thinking, but there's a certain fascination in watching people try to wipe it off." --Barry Gifford