Escape

Rex Harrison was primarily a stage actor and indeed a first rate one. His films however are very much a mixed bag but he had a very good working relationship with director Joseph L. Mankiewicz for whom he gave excellent performances. This is the second of their four films together, following on from 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.'

Harrison is not the first to play the character of former RAF pilot Matt Denant who has escaped from prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder. Notable among previous personifications were Leslie Howard on Broadway, Orson Welles on Radio and Gerald du Maurier in a typically stodgy British film from 1930.

Harrison's polished persona perfectly suits playwright John Galsworthy's concept that a gentleman never ceases to be a gentleman even when he's down. Whilst on the run he is aided by the free-spirited Nora of Peggy Cummins who is herself wanting to escape a life of poverty by marrying a man she does not love. Romance blossoms of course and when Denant finishes his sentence he will very likely marry her, thereby exchanging one kind of servitude for another!

Good support here from a cast of stalwarts, notably William Hartnell as a kind hearted policeman, a wonderfully twitchy Cyril Cusack as a man who cannot back a winner and Norman Wooland as a parson who persuades Denant to do the right thing.

Although the weakest of their four collaborations, with Mankiewicz at the helm there are some effective moments whilst having Freddie Young behind the camera and William Alwyn as composer can only constitute a plus.

This film is also an interesting piece of social history as Galsworthy had a strong belief in English justice and the class system, both of which have since taken a hell of a battering!

Poor old Rex Harrison ("Denant") is taking a stroll though a foggy park when he gets involved in a tragic contretemps with a prostitute and an undercover police officer. The ensuing fracas sees the officer fall to the ground where he bangs his head on the leg of a bench and dies. "Denant" stays put, owns up and throws himself on the mercy of the court - and a sentence of three years is his reward. He manages to escape, though, and with the help of a young girl "Dora" (Peggy Cummins) manages to lead the pursuing police - led by William Hartnell - a merry dance. I've got to say, though, that aside from the obvious criticism of the demonstrably inflexible justice system that penalised a man for an accident, I struggled to quite see the point of the rest of it. It has gently religious - or, perhaps more specifically Christian - undertones, and maybe that serves to illustrate that a system with some flaws is better than no system at all, but it doesn't resonate in a fashion that concludes in anything substantial. Perhaps that's the point - maybe we are too prone to look for definites where there are none to be had. It's decently paced - much of it takes place on the run - and there is the odd comic scene, too. Harrison and Hartnell do their jobs well enough without either really having to tax their resources, nor for that matter must we, watching.

Rex Harrison is walking in the park after a losing day at the track. He falls into conversation with a young woman sitting on a bench. She hands him a card for her business and Harrison begins to walk off, when a police detective comes up to arrest her for solicitation. Harrison protests. The detective tells him to scarper off. Harrison protests some more and the 'tec takes a swing at him. They tussle and the policeman splatters his head on the bench's ironmongery.

Found guilty of manslaughter, Harrison is sent to Dartmoor. He escapes, is pursued by the police in the form of Inspector William Hartnell, and succored by Peggy Cummins.

It's a remake of the 1930 movie that was the first production of what became Ealing Studios, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, with John Galsworthy's original script updated by Philip Dunne -- lots more sexual tension between Harrison and Cummins than in the original script. It's certainly a competent remake, and purists will be pleased that the outdoor scenes were shot in Dartmoor; the original used Northamptonshire. Yet I am always confronted by the question of how it is that it's always the good-looking people who are morally superior, and who are believed to be honest. Frederick Piper, who plays the convict to whom Harrison confides his intention to escape.... had he been the one who did so, would Miss Cummins have helped him?

In the 1940s British country police were often portrayed in the visual media as slow & witless and "Escape"(1948) is no exception, what we in Britain called "Plod".They were portrayed as "yokels" working for underfunded constabularies by central government, when local police could only give chase on bicycles to criminals driving stolen cars.They made illogical assumptions that a man & woman in a vehicle "must be Americans" without checking the facts.The heroine Peggy Cummings' character comes over as too naive and too ready to believe Rex Harrison's (RH) story even suggesting to her sister they should let him use their car to escape!There is a pathetic shot of RH trying to fly off in a monoplane which then crashes and which only causes RH a sprained shoulder!In one scene he causes criminal damage by setting the monoplane alight.In another scene RH compounds the offence by assaulting George Woodbridge (who plays an armed farmer) as he attempts to evade justice.

However, we viewers do have some sympathy for RH's character for being found guilty of manslaughter and being sentenced to 3 years in Dartmoor prison.Towards the end of his escape he tries to obtain medieval sanctuary meeting Derick de Marney who plays a priest (and who played a similar role as RH in Hitchcocks 1933 "Young & Innocent).Derick proceeds to talk theology and philosophy to RH in the hope RH will surrender to the police.Peggy Cummings enters the church having previously unbidden told RH of her love & belief in him.With the police threatening to obtain a search warrant and before the priest can comment on RH's whereabouts, RH volunteers to surrender to law & order and is promptly driven back to Dartmoor, presumably to finish his sentence with I presume greater length added for all his further misdemeanors committed.The producers therefore leave moral questions in the air, just posing them.My rating just 6/10

An ex-RAF gentleman pilot (Denant) has casual speech with a girl in a park, a girl of the night. As he leaves, a heavy handed police detective attempts to roughly arrest the girl, and Denant turns back to politely intervene, a "there's no need for that". The detective is a petty tyrant, out to make his bust of a poor working girl, though she had only been on the bench, not on the game. The two men tussle—the long arm of the law and the stronger arm of the righteous gentleman. The law falls, Denant stays righteous and is sent down for his pains.

Soon he breaks out and goes on the run, as a righteous matter of principle. He falls in with Dora, a daughter of a well respected family, whose family has fallen financially, and she is engaged for lucre not love. Stretching credulity, she very readily casts in her lot with him, defying the injustice of the law, and committing ever more until she's dropped her intended, exchanging lucre for love.

For Denant's part, he comes to accept that human justice is imperfect, and if you don't like it it might be better to lump it. Some reviewer has strangely suggested that God's direct voice features. That misses a big point: at most, it's God's indirect voice through a church leader, who philosophises that hearing God's voice is often difficult, even for Christians, in a fallen world. In short, moral decisions aren't always perfect—even as in chess several different moves according to objective rules can be good, and a seeming good move might be ill-judged. Should the church leader, as a law-abider, turn Denant in, or as a God-abider should he conceal Denant who has claimed sanctuary? What sanctuary remains in the world? Should Denant willingly suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? The film is explorative.

Its conclusion is clear about some decisions, but not clear about some conclusions, such as whether recapture will lead to extended jail time, or possibly a retrial, especially if a missing witness were to come forward. The imperfection of human justice, the futility of opposing it, the individual's freedom of choice even under Big Brother (sorry David & Teresa, lol), what it means to be human, all are looked at in this play.