You Can't Escape

Author Robert Urquhart and heiress Noelle Middleton fall head over heels in love. After they announce their engagement Urquhart's ex- girlfriend shows up and tells him she's pregnant with his baby. He ends up killing her in a freak accident. When he tries to dispose of the body Middleton catches him, but after some convincing agrees to help him, and they bury her in some private woods owned by Middleton's family. However journalist Peter Reynolds, always on the lookout for a spicy story, and the dead girl's doctor Guy Rolfe, throw a spanner in the works.

A decent Britnoir that could've been better. Urquhart plays a man whose life spirals out of control after an unfortunate accident. But you never feel too sorry for him, he's too selfish and keeps telling Middleton to just forget the dead ex ever happened. Because of that event Middleton starts to see the lesser side of Urquhart and is having doubts about the marriage, while Rolfe starts to take a romantic interest in her. Meanwhile shady journalist Reynolds is also not beyond receiving bribes for not writing his story, as he can connect Urquhart to the dead girl and even figures out where he's buried her. They give good performances, but it's all too posh and polite, too stiff-upper-lip, even for a British movie. Esp Rolfe looks like he has his suits pressed while wearing them.

For both director Wilfred Eames and cinematographer Norman Warwick this would be their first movie and they do a nice job. They keep things moving at a brisk pace and there are some nice shots sprinkled throughout. As with the performances, it could've used more spunk and a higher sense of doom and dread, but all in all, not a bad way to spend 75 minutes.

Robert Urquhart is a rising young writer. He has an understanding with Noelle Middleton. He discovers his recent lover, Elizabeth Kentish, is expecting, and she expects him to do something about it. They quarrel, and she dies accidentally. Miss Middleton helps him cover up, but it preys on both their minds, and on the mind of blackmailing fellow writer Robert Urquhart. When an archeological dig turns up Miss Kentish's body, Doctor Guy Rolfe falls under suspicion.

It;'s a watchable little murder mystery, nicely paced by first-time director Wilfred Eades, as everyone acts terribly civilized, even as Urquhart becomes more and more unhinged. Does he feel guilty, or is it simply the threat to his comfortable life, shuttling between London and the small cozy town they all grew up in?

This film is based on a theme I find intriguing, in which someone ordinary, in this case a young author, is drawn into crime through events. You can continue to debate with yourself throughout the film whether Peter Darwin was really a criminal; would he have received a fair trial in 1950's Britain; if he had gone to the police would he have been believed. Right through the film new facets are revealed about the characters Kay Murch and Peter Darwin as the plot presents them with successive dilemmas. The film stands up well even after the change in public attitudes to morality over the last sixty years, yet it is also interesting to see the attitudes of the time revealed through the reactions of the bit players.

I would say the acting was very good from all players, with camera- work and lighting presenting it very well. Sound is good, with the excellent diction you expect in films of that age. Well worth a watch to see the locations of the time in London and in the countryside, as well as an absorbing crime drama told from the perspective of the people involved, not the police investigating.