Prismark10
This low budget film is an early version of The Defiant Ones.Jack Warner does a villainous turn who along with George Cole are handcuffed prisoners on the run. Warner is smart, cunning and amoral. Cole is naive and dim, pretty soon he is stitched up for murder that Warner committed. Warner even manages to have a meet up with an old flame, even though his wife is fretting over him.Comedy is provided by David Tomlinson as a reporter on his honeymoon persuaded by his editor to cover this breaking news story.Warner provides an energetic even complex performance, a world away from PC George Dixon, but the film is too uneven, the comedy sections with Tomlinson and his editor just gets in the way. The film has some nice location shooting, appearances from some familiar British actors and even a social conscience.
malcolmgsw
Surely not you say.However before he was resurrected to play George Dixon,Warner often played villains as in this film.On the run from prison with a rather anaemic looking George Cole.He ends up commuting murder and quite happy to let poor George pay for it.There is a fairly exciting pursuit over the countryside.The finale is a sort of Cody Jarrett moment.Knowing that he is walking into a minefield he continues till he is blown up in the presence of his wife.David Tomlinaon in an early role as a journalist who is pressured into use his honeymoon to track down Warner.Bit like His Girl Friday.Anyway immortality was a waiting Warner.
MartinHafer
This is a low budgeted British film about two handcuffed prisoners who escape and are tracked throughout the film. One of the guys is a smart and amoral older crook. The other is a complete idiot who should have just stayed put instead of hopping off the police truck transporting them. Thrown into the mix is a guy on his honeymoon (David Tomlinson), as his editor insists he stop his canoodling and get the story!The film is an interesting portrait of the older prisoner. The younger guy is just too stupid to make him worth watching. But if you think about it, the plot is so much like the better American film "The Defiant Ones"--so why not just watch that instead? Especially since this British film is amazingly flat and dull at times considering the subject matter.
MIKE WILSON
An interesting piece of casting, having Jack Warner playing the bad guy, but he is a good enough actor to pull it off. He plays a war hero George Martin, who with another convict, Willie Stannard, (George Cole) break loose from police custody, while handcuffed together. David Tomlinson as the young reporter, who is called in to work on the story. A film from another era, that is well worth watching.
AD
