Ambush in Leopard Street

A retired criminal gets the gang back together for one last job in this Poverty Row crime caper. The pitch? Steal diamonds, mid-transport, from a boutique jeweller. The problem? He doesn't know when the "500,000 smackers worth of ice" will be on the move. To find out, the con recruits his young brother-in-law to win the affections of the jeweller's secretary. The goons' plan isn't ambitious, complicated or exciting, and neither is the film. Director JHenry Piperno engages in few of the cinematic conventions that make the heist genre so compelling. There are no safecrackers, wheelmen or wild cards with a twinkle in their eye, just po-faced geezers pacing around drab domestic settings. Ambush in Leopard Street is an am-dram B-movie that struggles to snatch any vim or vigour from its stuffy screenplay and rock-bottom budget. Nobody gets away clean from this one, least of all the viewer.