Eight O'Clock Walk

I'm in agreement with most other people here that this is an excellent British post-war melodrama (based on a true story). I just wanted to add that the title "Eight O'Clock Walk" refers to the time (8.00 am) when executions used to be carried out in England. It basically alludes to a condemned man's walk to the gallows (or the electric chair).

Dirty old men with sweeties stuffed into their coat pockets to secure the trust of young children seem to have been a regular feature of London life back in the law-abiding fifties.

We already know from the start that nice young Richard Attenborough isn't the guilty party, but with the recent hanging of Derek Bentley still fresh in people's minds it was a hot enough topic for the title to overtly (if archaically) refer to the fate that awaits the hero if he isn't exonerated before the conclusion.

As in 'The Angry Silence' the beleaguered Attenborough has to face the music with a sad-eyed, short-lived young actress from abroad by his side. Six years later it was Pier Angeli, on this occasion it's the waif-like Cathy O'Donnell.

A great movie showing the dangers of circumstantial evidence. Being a 1954 movie, I liked seeing all the old cars. The taxi cabs are old now but they looked new in the movie. I don't understand why at least two of those cabs were missing a passenger front door! I like the Wolseley police car. I also like the piece of comedy about the lady who witnessed Tom chasing the girl. She told a lady she was looking for long pants for her husband. I'm sure she was supposed to be talking to the judge about her witnessing Tom chasing the girl, but she picked the wrong topic and talked about the long pants!

A melodrama that looks at the legal system that suddenly adds dashes of Perry Mason into the mix. Richard Attenborough plays a local friendly cabbie who gets trick or treated by a gang of kids early in the morning. He goes after them more in jest and later helps one of the girl's looking for her lost doll in the streets of post war London which still was littered with bomb sites

When the young girl is found dead Attenborough turns out to be the wrong man in the wrong place but all the evidence, circumstantial it might be points to him being the murderer. Of course we know it's not him as we see a man in a bowler hat shown in silhouette who approached he girl after Attenborough left the girl and this shadowy man pops up later on. It really wants you to shout out 'its that man again' every time you see him

Attenborough's wife has a hard time to get a criminal solicitor who believes in his innocent, only later a dogged barrister reluctantly turns detective in order to unmask the real culprit

The film has a very realistic location setting of the post war London with kids running about on their own. Even the reluctance of the lawyers to take the case on was very much on the mark. The latter part of the film based on some random circumstances allowing the Barrister to think it the murderer is someone else and nearby is rather convenient but the film just about gets away with it.

By the numbers murder mystery drama starring Richard Attenborough as a London cab driver who is on trial on a murder charge accused of murdering a young girl.

The time the film was made in 1953 which meant the potential consequences of a guilty verdict was execution by hanging which adds even more suspense to a courtroom sequence and provides the title for the film as all UK executions were carried out at eight o' clock apparently.

The court scenes are quite flimsy by modern standards, hardly A Few Good Men (1988) standard!

Attenborough is good in his part as the innocent man facing a guilty verdict under a tonne of prosecution circumstantial evidence.

I can't help feel that I have seen this kind of story loads of times. It brings nothing new except the relationship between the prosecuting barrister and his son as the junior defence barrister who is trusted to defend Attenborough due to the senior defence lead being called away.

The wife of the accused (Cathy O'Donnell) plays the usual concerned damsel in distress.

An average British production from the 1950s that I only watched for Attenborough's appearance really.