Gaolbreak

One of the many second features churned out by Butchers. It has a brainless plot by A.R. Rawlinson about a mother (Avice Landone) and her two criminal sons (Peter Reynolds & David Gregory) who use a newsagents as a front for their nefarious deeds. The gang plan to crack open a safe, unfortunately Gregory, who is the expert in this field, is behind bars. Thus Landone makes plans to break him out. Carol White turns up as the pregnant girlfriend of David Kernan, who has reluctantly became involved in the shenanigans. At this early point in her career White shows none of the promise that was later to win her acclaim in Cathy Comes Home and Poor Cow. In fact after this hysterical performance it is a wonder she was ever employed again. At one stage of the film the actress playing her mother says "Oh Carol, stop acting", to which White's character replies "I'm not acting!". Such insight in an actor is rare.

Avice Landon has planned a very nice jewelry store robbery for her dear sons to execute. The only problem is that one of the angels is in prison. She she arranges a breakout. A couple of other cons go along, including David Kernan, who is anxious to see his girllfriend, Carol White, who is in a delicate condition.

All ordinary decent criminals in the best English tradition, isn't it? With the right cast, it could be a comedy, but this is a standard, cheap B produced by Butchers, with Francis Searle as the director. So it's handled in a rather serious fashion, with Carl Bernard as the New Scotland Yard Inspector who looks upon all of this as another day at the office, and is rather pleased when a couple of other fish swim into his net.

GAOLBREAK is another low rent British thriller from the reliably poor Butcher's Film Studios. These films all tend to last for an hour or so and contain very little content other than lots of talking from actors who were never seen or heard of again. The plot of GAOLBREAK concerns a criminal gang who must break one of their number out of prison so that they can commit yet another robbery.

For a thriller, the thrills are in short supply here, and there are just a handful of set-pieces involving safecracking, wall-scaling and the like. The action quota is virtually nil, as is the suspense. Instead what we get is a bland, Roger Moore-lookalike leading man, lots of stodgy melodrama, and some random dancing interludes which sap the pacing still further. It's not amazingly poor, but it's pretty worthless.

A lot of disparaging remarks in other reviews prompted me to give a more positive slant on it.Yes i know that the prison break is highly dubious.How did they manage to scale a 10 foot wall from the inside,and there is no barbed wire on top.Also the prison is conveniently close to a dance hall so that the lags can nip in on the run to have a quick waltz with one of the women standing around.By the way since the break occurs on a midweek afternoon how come 2 young factory workers are dolled up to the nines instead of slaving away at the workbench?However once the passion of David Kiernan and a young Carol white break loose nothing can stop them not the crooks or the law.Don't expect a great deal and you wont be disappointed.

Calling "Gaolbreak", and the other output of its producers Butchers Films, a 'B' picture would be unduly flattering. More like a 'C' picture, or even a 'D' picture. A cast of unknowns, with the exception of Carol White (future star of "Cathy Come Home"), take part in a thrill-less "thriller", in which the eponymous "gaolbreak" (why the American spelling?) appears so simple that one wonders if anyone is left inside the prison.

Despite the plodding story, the film has a certain old-world charm; made in the year of my birth, it presents us with a vanished world in which policemen were avuncular but benign and crooks used no language stronger than "you nit!" Leading man Peter Reynolds bears a startling resemblance to Roger Moore ; by a curious coincidence, co-star Ivor Dean would later play dimwitted Chief Inspector Teal opposite Moore in "The Saint".