Strictly for the Birds

A gambler tries to strike it rich at the racetrack but gets taken by a gorgeous blonde who also happens to be a crook.

This is really just a vehicle for small-time theatre star Tony Tanner, and it's doesn't really add up to much. He ("Terry") is having a good night having found a penny on the street and by one means or another turned it into a tidy twenty quid. There is soon quite a fly in his ointment, though, when an ex turns up and deposits "Alfie" (Alan Baulch) on him, claiming he is their son. What now ensues is a rather predictable series of scenarios that though occasionally lit up by Joan Simms as the landlady "Peggy", these recycle themselves a bit too often. Tanner has timing and some personality, but somehow this film just neuters that quite effectively with a really limiting stage-like production and some borderline inane dialogue. There is plenty of London photography, but after a few scenes that becomes unremarkable too. Saturday afternoon B-feature fodder, that's all, I'm afraid.