User Reviews

An odd little British crime number that goes for a quirky, semi-serious approach as opposed to the usual dry and crackling film noir inspired outings. The opening heist scene, with its bizarre mannerisms, high camp, and touch of sauciness, is heavily inspired by THE AVENGERS although things settle down a little after this point and become more sedate.

It's the pacing which I had the biggest problem with. The set-up of the tale is interesting but the execution is very matter-of-fact and a would-be romance between two of the characters seems to occupy too much of the running time. However, Jan Holden was finely chosen as the unlikely protagonist and her striking looks work very well for her characterisation. She's slightly odd, very powerful, and she has a heart too. Few female characters in this B-film genre were as well drawn.

Elsewhere, THE PRIMITIVES has a saggy midsection in which the film forgets that it's about crime, and a mildly exciting climax involving a bomb at an airport. The supporting cast is quite poor and the budget is quite obviously constrained throughout. This was a stepping stone in the filmography of Turkish-born director Alfred Travers, who made a short career of micro-budgeted pieces.

This film starts off like an episode of The Avengers with the gang leader (the wonderfully-named Cheta) and her boys posing as a titled lady, her chauffeur and two city gents in order to steal gems from a smart London jewellry store. The way the two city gents karate chop the sales assistants and later meet up in a gents washroom to change their appearance and act in unison is pure camp. However the story soon looses momentum, turning into a more restrained, run-of-the-mill crime drama, albeit with some unusual touches.

One or two scenes are unintentionally funny. I like the inane chat between the two policemen at the start where the American (who smokes very furiously) is told by the other cop that an 'international' gang could just be an ordinary gang who move around a lot! You almost get the sense that this piece was improvised on the spot to fill five minutes. I also like the scene about half way through where Peter, John and Claude are waiting in the park for Cheta and it stops raining instantaneously as though someone had just turned the garden sprinkler off (which they probably had).

The cool Latin-flavoured jazz score is by Edmondo Ross and watch out for Edmondo making a cameo appearance in the first night club scene introducing 'The Primatives' stage show (watch out for the guys' frilly puff-sleeve shirts).