Breakout

Yet another cautious, severely unpretentious British heist flick where tight calculation and timing are everything, and, directed by Peter Graham Scott... who'd soon make Hammer's NIGHT CREATURES... this is a Post Noir where the characters discuss more than they actually do while the conversations have a page-turning cadence sans the b-movie pulp...

Making BREAKOUT not very fun but there IS another slowburn role for underrated English actor William Lucas (THE BREAK, CALCULATED RISK) as a cool/classy businessman criminal... paired with a spectacle-wearing wolf, seducing the gorgeous wife of the man they're hired to BREAKOUT...

And that's CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN good girl fiance Hazel Court as the token bad girl... but the key player hired for the dirty work is handsome Lee Patterson, a government paper-pusher on an urgent search for the right truck for a quick "drive in and pick up" escape...

Here director Scott wields palpable 11th hour suspense, especially since our anti-hero has the most to lose with pretty crime-oblivious wife Billie Whitelaw at home...

But other than a pint-sized Irish barfly trucker, jailed for Patterson to take the wheel, it's Hazel Court's ride: Had this been more than a sixty-minute dialog-driven programmer, she has the femme fatale potential to seduce BOTH partners (Lucas and the sweet-talking John Paul) whose job's to free a husband she doesn't want or care about...

Which, on its own, is NOIR defined: but in 1959 it was a year too late.

62 Minutes, and no mucking around.

The judge has hardly finished reading out the sentence he imposed on Arkwright, than his wife is getting in touch with 'fixer'. Chandler, who will arrange to spring him from prison. We do get a chance to draw breath during the cosy domestic scenes between the civil servant ex-con chosen for the job, played by charismatic Lee Patterson, and wife Billie Whitelaw, before we're off and running again and our hearts are in our mouths when it looks as if the break will be frustrated.

This is the kind of film that Woody 'One Shot' Van Dyke would have been proud to have made in his heyday: no muss, no fuss, just give the public what they want.

It ain't art, but I loved it, and it ended with a smile on my face, although I'm not saying who else had.

Zippy direction, good location shooting, including car chases, a 'bar- room brawl', and 'a bit on the side'. What more do you want?

Wonderful playing by Patterson, Whitelaw, Hazel Court, as Arkwright's glamorous 'femme fatale' wife, and the perennially caddish Terence Alexander. With Dermot Kelly, as the Irishman who whips up a storm in a bar, in order to become the inside man And almost steal the film.

Classic British late 50's B feature. A young Billie Whitelaw is excellent and as was common with these type of films at the time, it also featured an American lead , Lee Patterson. The staged fight brawl in the pub is an absolute classic. They certainly don't make them like that anymore, which is a shame. Would absolutely recommend that if you like these kind of films that you seek out and purchase the Edgar Wallace box set, which features this film, as an added bonus. A little gem.

This little gem appears as an "extra" on Volume 3 of the Edgar Wallace DVD series. Holds the attention and very well produced for a low-budget second feature. Really good supports from a variety of British character actors of the period - many for some reason not credited. George Woodbridge turns up as the inevitable landlord and Lloyd Lamble reprises his excellent study of a Detective Inspector. Watch out for Glyn Houston in the bar scene.