DANCING IN THE DARK

Undaunted by the news that three of shady Sonny Tarrant's intimates have just been murdered, petty con Johnny McIver—and his mistress and frequent photographic subject Solitaire (nÇe Sally Brown)—plot to empty out Tarrant's safe, succeeding to their sorrow: When McIver turns down an offer from a Tarrant underling to buy back the hot ú5 notes at a steep discount, he finds himself abandoned by the money-changer who'd promised him more, framed for the murder of Solitaire, and on the run from the police as well as Tarrant. Meanwhile, Inspector Jack Rutter, assigned to Solitaire's murder, turns up evidence of a murderous cross-fire between Tarrant's cronies that leaves Solitaire almost forgotten. Thomas (The Ripper's Apprentice, etc.) doesn't quite pull off this hybrid of man-on-the-run melodrama and police detection, but his bleakly stylish evocation of 1949 London smartly captures the sour taste of McIver's realization that ``he was about to die from lack of ambition. He had been content to rob in a world where the game was murder.''