The cast includes two actors (Paul Freeman and Ian Hart) that had appeared in Hughes' earlier short film A Girl and a Gun from which this, his first feature, was developed.
[2] London crime boss Jimmy the Gent travels to Southend in Essex to collect some monies owed to him by local gangster Shrewd Eddie.
The Guardian's Henry Barnes described it as a glossy hybrid of American noir and British gangster films "with nothing under the wrapper".
[5] Tom Huddleston of Time Out also found it clichéd – "more Cockernee crime by numbers" – but also suggested that it had "a fistful of decent throwaway gags and enough plot surprises to just about carry it through the rough patches".
[6] ScreenDaily praised its technical aspects including Anders Bundgaard's opening credit sequence and Sara Deane's cinematography, describing it overall as "an intriguing debut".