Production
Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.
When Professor Willingdon becomes wary of the nuclear weapons he is helping build, he steals a warhead and threatens to detonate it in London in seven days unless the government begins nuclear disarmament. As Willingdon goes into hiding, Detective Folland of Scotland Yard sets out to find him. Willingdon's daughter Ann also joins the cause, hoping she can talk sense into her father before he causes a catastrophe.
Malta, 1942, during World War II. While the German air force is relentlessly bombing the island, a British pilot falls in love with a young Maltese girl.
At the end of a successful military career, womanising Leo Fitzjohn retires to his countryside manor with his unbearable family. When his platonic French mistress Ghislaine arrives at the door, Fitzjohn is prepared to take the relationship to the next level. However, Fitzjohn must compete for Ghislaine's affections against his own aide.
A European family in East Africa finds itself caught up in an uprising by local black Africans against their white colonial masters. Based on the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya in the early 1950s.
A working-class boy wins a scholarship to a public school, as part of a post-World War Two experiment in bringing boys of different social classes together.
John Cummings, an unsuccessful London cosmetics salesman, has his unpaid-for car stolen by a hood in the employ of Lionel Meadows, sadistic organiser of a car conversion racket. As the vehicle is uninsured, and since the police seem indifferent, Cummings decides to find it himself — and gets himself involved in an underworld battle.
Tony Hudson offers his young wife Jane a cruise on a yacht as a honeymoon trip. Although Jane suffers from chronic seasickness, she accepts and one day they go on board the Turtle, a fine yacht owned by an industrialist friend, Dudley Partridge. A lot of misadventures await them before they finally reach France.
