Trapped by London Sharks

Trigger warning:

Contains domestic violence

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Trapped by London Sharks

1916
Silent
66m

Nefarious nightclub hosts blackmail a drunkard into fleecing their customers

An intertitle announcing "Zina replenishes the poison gas bracelet" leaves viewers in no doubt that they're in crime drama territory with this tale of murder and intrigue. We can expect sophisticated criminals bristling with gadgets for parting drunks and gamblers from their cash, pursued by a youthful detective with pure motives and forensic skill. The deliciously evil Zina is the brains, robbing banks and ditching inconvenient bodies in the Thames in this admirably efficient thriller.

Will Barker specialised in the production of these nicely made, if not wildly original crime dramas. He made great use of locations in the streets surrounding his Ealing studio and nearly always found an excuse for a river or canal scene. The structure of the dramas is pacy with the sparest use of intertitles – the hallmark of a well-made silent film.

Forgotten Features

A hand-picked assortment of hard-to-see British feature films, featuring mischievous mermaids, murderous minors and military mayhem.

Thanks to decades of DVD and online publishing, not to mention archive revivals and restorations, more of Britain’s screen heritage is available today than ever before. You might even be forgiven for imagining that the whole of British cinema is now just a click away.

But much of that history - from the silent era to the relatively recent past - remains out of reach. This selection from the vaults, hand-picked by the BFI's curators, goes some way to remedying that. These fresh rediscoveries offer something for all tastes: whether futuristic fantasy, battle-of-the-sexes comedy, subversive provocation or an Indian-British rarity.