Escape

This is of course a remake of the 1930 film starring Gordon Harker.This was the second film made by Associated Talking Pictures at Ealing.It is therefore rather primitive when compared to this film which gives it a Holluywood makeover,notwithstanding the fact that it was made in the UK by Fox.Given the use of the quotation from Galsworthy at the end one can only assume that this film is somehow supposed to teach a moral lesson and inspire faith in the workings of the machinery of Justice.Ironic when you think of the miscarriage of justice that was going on at the time with the infamous Christie case just one example of the way justice was not working.The problem with this story is that since it would appear that the crime was committed ,the protestations of wrongful conviction rather fall on deaf ears.

The acting of the main characters - Harrison, Cummins and Hartnell - are convincing but generally lack a great deal of passion. Everyone behaves pretty much as one would expect. There are many twists and turns in the plot but these are often fairly predictable; one is rarely surprised. The settings - prison, village, moor, country cottage, are just what they're supposed to be, no more, no less. The dialogue is convincing, and also just what you might expect. There is variety of tone and many moments of humour, darker points, philosophical themes regarding justice, honour and life. Generally, the film takes its time making its points, just so you don't miss them. So it rolls along in an amiable manner and is enjoyable to watch; however, it does lack some of the sparkle of the 1930 version.

Peggy Cummins (92 at this writing) is probably best known for her portrayal of a gun-happy gal in the classic noir "Gun Crazy" from 1950.

After winning the lead in 1947's Forever Amber over 200 auditioners, she was replaced by Linda Darnell because the producers decided she wasn't famous enough.

Here she is in a programmer, "Escape" from 1948, alongside Rex Harrison. Harrison plays Matt DEnant, convicted of manslaughter after an accident involving a policeman.

It was a just act, defending a woman talking with him in the park; he punched the police officer, who hit his head on the bench and died as a result.

Matt is sentenced to three years in prison which he doesn't want to spend for something he doesn't feel responsible for. He escapes during a thick fog and is caught by a young upper class woman, Dora Winton, as he's stealing her breakfast in her bedroom. She feels sorry for him and gives him a coat and hat, and he takes off as the police search her family's house.

Matt runs into Dora again when a car he stole breaks down, and again, she helps him. Unfortunately, while she helps him, another friend does not, and he nearly walks into a trap.

Matt learns that she's engaged to a man she doesn't love, strictly for money as her family has fallen on hard times. She doesn't think three years is all that long to serve, and points out that if Matt has to run and hide the rest of his life, isn't that prison too?

Good story with good performances. There are a couple of messages here - there are different kinds of prisons, and different kinds of laws. As a priest tells Matt, God's law is infallible. Man's is not.

The end is unexpected, at least it was by me.

Rex Harrison was primarily a stage actor and indeed a first rate one. His films however are very much a mixed bag but he had a very good working relationship with director Joseph L. Mankiewicz for whom he gave excellent performances. This is the second of their four films together, following on from 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.'

Harrison is not the first to play the character of former RAF pilot Matt Denant who has escaped from prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder. Notable among previous personifications were Leslie Howard on Broadway, Orson Welles on Radio and Gerald du Maurier in a typically stodgy British film from 1930.

Harrison's polished persona perfectly suits playwright John Galsworthy's concept that a gentleman never ceases to be a gentleman even when he's down. Whilst on the run he is aided by the free-spirited Nora of Peggy Cummins who is herself wanting to escape a life of poverty by marrying a man she does not love. Romance blossoms of course and when Denant finishes his sentence he will very likely marry her, thereby exchanging one kind of servitude for another!

Good support here from a cast of stalwarts, notably William Hartnell as a kind hearted policeman, a wonderfully twitchy Cyril Cusack as a man who cannot back a winner and Norman Wooland as a parson who persuades Denant to do the right thing.

Although the weakest of their four collaborations, with Mankiewicz at the helm there are some effective moments whilst having Freddie Young behind the camera and William Alwyn as composer can only constitute a plus.

This film is also an interesting piece of social history as Galsworthy had a strong belief in English justice and the class system, both of which have since taken a hell of a battering!

In the 1940s British country police were often portrayed in the visual media as slow & witless and "Escape"(1948) is no exception, what we in Britain called "Plod".They were portrayed as "yokels" working for underfunded constabularies by central government, when local police could only give chase on bicycles to criminals driving stolen cars.They made illogical assumptions that a man & woman in a vehicle "must be Americans" without checking the facts.The heroine Peggy Cummings' character comes over as too naive and too ready to believe Rex Harrison's (RH) story even suggesting to her sister they should let him use their car to escape!There is a pathetic shot of RH trying to fly off in a monoplane which then crashes and which only causes RH a sprained shoulder!In one scene he causes criminal damage by setting the monoplane alight.In another scene RH compounds the offence by assaulting George Woodbridge (who plays an armed farmer) as he attempts to evade justice.

However, we viewers do have some sympathy for RH's character for being found guilty of manslaughter and being sentenced to 3 years in Dartmoor prison.Towards the end of his escape he tries to obtain medieval sanctuary meeting Derick de Marney who plays a priest (and who played a similar role as RH in Hitchcocks 1933 "Young & Innocent).Derick proceeds to talk theology and philosophy to RH in the hope RH will surrender to the police.Peggy Cummings enters the church having previously unbidden told RH of her love & belief in him.With the police threatening to obtain a search warrant and before the priest can comment on RH's whereabouts, RH volunteers to surrender to law & order and is promptly driven back to Dartmoor, presumably to finish his sentence with I presume greater length added for all his further misdemeanors committed.The producers therefore leave moral questions in the air, just posing them.My rating just 6/10