One Way Out

Eddie Byrne is about to retire as a police superintendent, but a clue points to finally nailing crime boss John Chandos before he does. Chandos tries to bribe him, but to no avail. So a plan is worked out to frame Byrne's daughter, Jill Adams in a robbery that has a man shot.

I found the story a bit contrived, and Miss Adams' situation in reality much easier than the movie seemed to insist on. Perhaps that's a matter of not believing in the incorruptibility of policemen and the lack of a 'blue wall' that the script supposes. The production winds up looking hurried and cheap, with a street sequence as Miss Adams walks past newspaper headlines fuzzy and poorly matched to the rest of the movie. Perhaps it was a stolen shot.

A girl gets herself hooked up in with a bunch of crooks, and gets the rap for a crime she did not commit. Her father is a retiring policeman who finds out about the crime, and goes against his morals to hatch an elaborate plan to cover his daughter. Well acted and interesting, but very short, and the abrupt ending will leave you going "what the?"

A very short movie with low production standards, but a story worthy of Shakespeare. It's a profound tragedy played in standard cops and robbers costume. Quick, somebody buy this story and do a modern remake! A policeman faced with deep moral choices finds that once he's set foot on the path of corruption he is trapped by an ever more complex web of lies and intrigue. A lifetime of personal honor is at stake and we wonder if redemption is possible. All is revealed in a dramatic ending.

Anyone able to sit still and concentrate for just an hour will be thoroughly rewarded. The ending is indeed sudden and possibly surprising, but not hard to understand.

Eddie Byrne stars as Superintendent Harcourt in "One Way Out" from 1955, also starring Jill Adams, Lyndon Brook, John Bushelle, and John Chandos.

About to retire, Superintendent Harcourt (Byrne) would like a chance to put away a master criminal Danvers (Chandos) and finally gets his chance when a stolen necklace shows up on the body of a dead woman.

Danvers attempts to bribe Harcourt, who turns him down. Desperate, Danvers sends Leslie Parrish (Brook) to meet Harcourt's daughter Shirley (Adams) and then set her up for an assault and robbery situation which she witnesses but does not commit. Complicating matters, the assaulted man dies.

Shirley tells her father what happened, and he comes up with a plan to make sure she is not accused.

B movie features decent acting and kind of a far-fetched story. Jill Adams was quite beautiful. Her character works in a record store - the kind where you bring a recording into a booth to hear it; in this film, kids were dancing in the booth, then left without buying the recording. These were before my time, but I love seeing them in films.