Passport To Shame (1958) | Mansion House

When Malou (Odile Versois), a young French woman tricked into sex work, goes missing, Johnny McVey (Eddie Constantine in his first English-speaking role), a Canadian cab driver, and other cabbies patrol the streets looking for her. In one shot he turns onto what was a much narrower Peter’s Hill in 1958. Much of the area between St Paul’s cathedral and the River remained bomb-damaged in the late Fifties. This had revealed, among other things, the remains of a Mithras temple from the Roman occupation of the city, excavations of which began in 1954.

“This was not a low budget film,” said the director Alvin Rakoff, better known for his TV work “this was a lowest budget film.” Nonetheless it has earned a small cult following lately, mainly for Nicholas Roeg’s camerawork, blink-and-you-miss-them cameos by Michael Caine, Jackie Collins, Diana Dors (who you last saw on the Scala map at Holland Park in ‘W11‘) steals the show as a world weary sex worker, and the spivs vs. cabbies fight at 5 Courtfield Gardens, Gloucester Road.