Analysis:

Adapted from a successful stage play by Richard (How Green Was My Valley) Llewellyn, Noose forms part of the 'spiv cycle' of a dozen or so British films produced between 1945-50. Described as a 'black market comedy thriller', it displays some slack plotting and character motivation, but has moments of striking visual style.

Whereas 'foreign' Italian racketeer Sugiani is associated with business and violent criminality, Bason's gang represent the British proletariat - tellingly a poster in the opening scene states 'We Work or Want'. They are WW2 veterans, now hard-working market porters. To distinguish themselves from racketeers, they wear football jerseys during the raid, and they use good old-fashioned fisticuffs.

In its depiction of good guys versus criminals, Noose captures a widely held view in 1948 that black marketeers like Sugiani, who evaded conscription and profited through criminal activity during the war, needed to be brought to account. The Soho church and the choir heard in the film act as a reminder that a moral code has been violated, so it is appropriate that Sugiani meets his end there.

Read the full analysis on BFI Screenonline.