Daybreak

When the story begins, the executioner at a British prison refuses to carry out the sentence on a main awaiting his maker. To explain why, he describes a series events which make up the rest of the film.

It seems that Eddie (Eric Portman) has just inherited a barge business from his estranged father. A bit later, he meets and falls in love with Frankie (Ann Todd) and they soon marry. However, one of Eddie's employees, Olaf (Maxwell Reed), is a creepy guy who has designs on Frankie....and wherever Eddie goes out of town on business, Olaf shows up and creeps out Frankie. Eventually, he ends up attacking her. Eddie finds out but assumes she was Olaf's lover and a huge fight breaks out. What happens next...well...see the film for yourself.

While this is generally a very good film, I wish that the characters hadn't hemmed and hawed about Olaf. Frankie keeps telling her husband not to go away on business and that she doesn't like Olaf...but no more. And, oddly, Eddie doesn't even ask WHY! These seem a bit odd. Now I am not saying it's a bad film....but odd in how it handles this situation. And no, I am not victim blaming....just that the folks' actions seemed odd.

Overall, a very sad film. Well made, generally, but a real downer in most every way.

Eric Portman answers an advertisement in the newspaper. His estranged father has died without a will, so he has inherited his fleet of 15 barges. Now that he has some money, he gives his half of the barber shop to Bill Owen. His other job, as a hangman, will take him about six months to work off his current obligations.

Quietly celebrating, he meets Ann Todd. They chat and a timid, misused creature is revealed. They marry and move onto one of the barges. She doesn't like his business trips out of town -- he claims it's for barge contracts; he never tells anyone what it's actually for, except Owen. She likes it even less when Scandinavian Maxwell Reed takes an interest in her that is considerably less avuncular than Edward Rigby.

With a title like this one has, you can tell it's going to be a rather heavy-handed drama, an English Shomin-Geki, and that's what you get. Both leads are acting outside their comfort zones; Portman speaks in clipped monosyllables, and Miss Todd uses a Cockney accent that fades out by the end. Still, there's some heavy-duty acting chops involved, and it works pretty well.

Eddie (Eric Portman) is a hangman, who makes a confession when he comes face to face with his final victim, Olaf, (Maxwell Reed). He tells the story of how he knows the victim to the Governor (Milton Rosmer). We learn of Eddie's double life - he uses an alias and has a share in a hairdresser business with Ron (Bill Owen). We follow the story as he inherits a fleet of barges and meets with Frankie (Ann Todd). They marry and settle down on a barge where Eddie hires Olaf as a workman...

The cast are quite good despite some appalling accents. Eric Portman delivers a mish-mash of a southern/northern accent and God knows what planet Maxweel Reed thought Danish people come from! My favourite in the cast is actually Jane Hylton who has a small role as "Doris" the barmaid. It's a shame that more of a role wasn't given to her.

With regards to the relationships between the characters, why didn't Eddie and Frankie just come clean with each other? He doesn't tell her of his role as a hangman and she doesn't mention anything to him about her fear of Olaf. This leads us to believe that maybe she had a previous job as a prostitute and maybe she loves it. She certainly has an independent streak as we see this on her first meeting with Eddie. I also felt that Eddie is too old for Frankie and his marriage proposal to Frankie and her acceptance after their 3rd meeting is laughable.

The film has a very downbeat ending and my girlfriend cried - not because of any affiliation to any particular character but purely because of the film's atmosphere. It's bleak.

The acting in this film noir is mostly wooden - Ann Todd apart. The best parts were probably left on the cutting room floor,courtesy of the censor. What's left is just the husk of a compelling story from Monckton Hoffe. The fight scene was atrocious and unconvincing, but the film is saved from itself because of the eeriness of the rain-soaked scenes, presumably shot at Hammersmith near the Riverside Studios. Shots of the Palais De Danse and the Rialto seem to give credence to this assertion. Bill Owen is his usual matter-of-fact self, and ends this sad story. The sound quality has suffered over the years - the opening music especially. All the criticism apart, the life on-board a barge and views of Gravesend riverfront before demolition to make way for soulless housing development are good reasons to buy the DVD (if you can find one)- and keep a strong drink handy for the ending. You have been warned.

An extraordinary, bizarrely cast melodrama which not surprisingly encountered censorship problems at the time.

Reminiscent of prewar French cinema but perfectly capturing the morose mood of a postwar Britain in which barrel organs were still heard in the street, Battersea power station still belched smoke and murderers were still woken at eight for their date with the hangman. Eric Portman was still young and dashing enough to play one of his flawed leads, waifs didn't come more chic than Anne Todd, and bad boys more saturnine than Maxwell Reed in the equivalent to the role played by Dan Duryrea in 'Scarlet Street'.