Die Stimme des Gewissens

Our heroes lost me early on when continually referring to their housemaid as "Potter".

Even in mortal danger one must know one's place.

There wasn't a lot of sympathy for the children's chauffeur either.

Post war Britain was bliss in 1948.

Bar that not the worst.

A story played out many times before but well acted by all including Howard Keel.

Valerie Hobson plays Valerie Hobson as usual and as always is the standout.

A couple with marriage problems (fortunately as it turns out) come across an accident involving three dangerous escapees, well one in any case.

As in many post war British films a Hollywood star was used and Keel, appearing at the time, in the WestEnd version of "Oklahoma" holds his own in the acting department.

Everyone else is equally as solid.

Watch out for the recording played late in the piece.

Quite a thoughtful ending.

Pity about Potter.

6/10.

From 1948, A Small Voice or Hideout is a 1948 British film, directed by Fergus McDonell.

A playwright, Murray Byrne (James Donald) and wife Eleanor (Valerie Hobson) stop en route home to help two men (Howard Keel billed as Harold and David Greene) who had been in a car accident.

It turns out that they have escaped from prison. Once at the couple's home, they hold them hostage. One returns to the accident and brings back a third man and two children who were in the other car with a dead chauffeur.

The little boy develops meningitis. Desperate to get a doctor for him, Eleanor tries sneaking out of the house to get to a phone box, since the crooks have disconnected the phone, but Boke (Keel) catches her.

Somewhat suspenseful, with Keel and Hobson having the best roles. The housekeeper (Joan Young) is a scream - at one point trying to distract Boke while Eleanor attempts to leave, she proclaims Bible passages. He shoves her into a room and closes the door, but she opens it and continues proclaiming.

Hobson was a huge star in England, married to John Profumo of the Profumo-Christine Keeler scandal that rocked Britain. The American Keel enjoyed a career on Broadway in musicals as well as films and TV, notably as a regular on Dallas.

Predictable.

Taut little British suspense feature sees Howard Keel in his film debut (billed as Harold Keel). Boke (Keel) is having a bad day he's broken out of Dartmoor Prison, shot a cop, been in a car crash and now is in a hostage situation with unhappily married couple James Donald and Valerie Hobson. He has Donald who writes plays about crooks trying to get into his psyche, Hobson looking at him like he's trash, the kid upstairs screaming from meningitis and two useless fellow escapees plus its hot inside and we've got no electric fan (James Donald didn't think it worthwhile buying one). Howard Keel looks lean and imposing and every inch his over 6ft height. American born Keel was in England starring on stage in 'Oklahoma'. You can hear him singing 'the hangman song' on the record James Donald plays. His next film was the big budget MGM musical ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. Oddly enough Keel played another escaped prisoner in the British made FLOODS OF FEAR. Valerie Hobson was married to the film's producer Anthony Havelock-Allan and later married politician John Profumo but that's a whole other story !!!

The Small Voice surprised me. I only watched it out of curiosity as I saw it was Howard Keel's first movie that he was offered while in Britain appearing in London in Oklahoma! This was in 1948 when he was 29. I've been a fan since I was a child as my earliest memory of the movies is seeing Annie Get Your Gun when I was about 5 or 6. Here, Keel is one of three escaped convicts from Dartmoor prison who invade the home of James Donald and Valerie Hobson after an offer to help after their car crashes. The couple have been having marital problems, possibly caused by Donald's war experiences which has left him with an injured leg and bad memories. Hobson can't stand his self pity any more and threatens to leave him. To add to the trouble, two small children, also involved in the crash are rescued by one of the crooks and brought back to the house. The film noir feel is apparent throughout the picture and really felt authentic for a British film. Howard Keel is the dominant personality and very impressive in his first role as a brutal thug although watch out for redeeming qualities. This film proves, rather like his musical rival, Gordon MacRae who I thought was very good in The Return of the Frontiersman in 1950, that these two big voiced singers could have been fine actors had they been given good roles like Frank Sinatra was in From Here To Eternity.

A perennial situation that dates back at least as far as 'The Petrified Forest' and culminated in the section in 'A Clockwork Orange' when Alex and his droogs invade the home of a writer with an attractive wife to whom they proceed to help themselves (itself based on an incident during the wartime blackout in 1944 when Anthony Burgess's own wife was beaten and raped by three GI deserters). Although based on a novel originally published in 1940 and here updated to the postwar crime wave, by the time Burgess wrote his own novel a further ten years later he was thinking of teddy boys.

The fellow who makes his film debut as the chief hood was an American billed as 'Harold Keel' who had recently made a name for himself on the West End stage. He shows promise.