We are immediately introduced to Jack Carter with his gangster colleagues watching porno slides. He is going up north to sort something. "The police were satisfied." But Jack isn’t. He is told not to make any enemies up there. The train arrives at Newcastle station. He has arranged to meet someone in a pub and asks for a drink "in a thin glass."
There is a telephone call for him from the person he was supposed to meet, Margaret she can’t make it. He asks about Doreen. He goes to a house, which he knows well because he knows where the key to the door is hidden. Inside there is a double-barrelled shot gun and ammunition. And a coffin with a body inside. Jack touches the hands. We know its someone close. Perhaps a brother as he of the same generation. A Land Rover pulls by outside. This Land Rover pulls by several times during the action in the first 15 minutes. We are very sure Jack is being watched. Jack books into a lodging house.
He is kind to the landlady offering to
pay more than he needs. He gets our sympathy even though we know
he is on the wrong side of the tracks. Above the bed is a
Victorian tapestry with the words "What would Jesus
say." Jack asks the Landlady if the bed has seen plenty of
action. The next day is the funeral. Work colleagues arrive of
the dead man and speak well of him and the surprise at the
circumstances of his death. Doreen arrives. The dead man’s
daughter. Jack is very concerned for her and even offers to take
her with his fiancée on his planned trip to South America. But
she works in Woolworths and doesn’t want to go.
The funeral cortege sets off with the Land Rover keeping a close eye. There is very little dialogue in the first 15 minutes but the story of Jack setting out to right a wrong, perhaps the murder of his own brother, is set before us. The main players Jack and Doreen are introduced and the sinister elements are there.
By Marie Dear
