Life in Danger

A terse, compelling rural drama, probably inspired by the Straffen case that shocked Britain a few years earlier; plus forties dramas about small-town xenophobia like 'The Ox-Bow Incident' and 'Panique' (Howard Marion Crawford as Major Peters strongly recalling Harry Shannon as Major Tetley in the former).

A young Derren Nesbitt demonstrates that once long ago he could touchingly play waifs as well as bullies.

Derren Nesbitt leads an extremely capable cast in this rarely seen B movie. Indeed, Nesbitt's performance is consistently first-rate throughout the film. The limited number of settings (a country lane, an office, a old English pub and a farm) may be quite basic, but these allow the well-crafted plot to shine through. Indeed, the story-line is surprisingly strong, building a tension which makes the movie's hour long running time pass remarkably quickly.

The underpinning theme of the movie is that a child murderer has escaped from an asylum. The actions and reactions of the inhabitants of the neighbouring village are really well-explored by director Terry Bishop.

Released under the Parroch Films banner and distributed by Butcher's Films in 1959, Renown digitally remastered the movie in 2009. It's revival on the Talking Pictures channel is really welcome.

At an institute for the criminally insane. The Governor is deciding whether to sound the alarm that a potentially dangerous inmate has escaped.

While he decides, the clock is ticking down. The inmate is getting further away making it harder for the police to catch him quickly.

Derren Nesbitt is the rough looking casual labourer who has come to a small village looking for work. He has a tattoo on his hand.

The stranger has no money until a woman at a bus stop gives him a few coins. The local pub does not serve him as he looks like a vagrant.

Hazel is a young woman who takes pity on the stranger. She directs him to a barn where he could rest. Later Hazel joins him with her brother.

Back at the village, once news emerges of the escaped inmate.

Major Peters does not want to leave matter to the police. He incites the villagers to become vigilantes and take the law into their own hands.

Realising that Hazel might be with a dangerous convict. They surround the barn, the escaped inmate has a tattoo on his hand.

Life In Danger is a low budget B movie. An escaped convict in a barn with some kids, that would be the more famous Whistle Down the Wind with Alan Bates which came out in 1961.

This movie is a contrived morality tale weighed down by its low budget somewhat.

The screenplay by Malcolm Hulke and Eric Paice was laboured, even the twist at the end looked out of place.

A murderer has escaped from the prison for the criminally insane. The doctor in charge hesitates to sound the alarm and rouse the county. At the same time, Derrin Nesbitt appears at the back door of a farmhouse and asks for some water. He's been walking all day. He's young, he's good-looking, and the daughter of the house, Julie Hopkins, takes a fancy to him.

It's a nicely done thriller, with some nice characterizations about it; particularly good is Peter Swanwick as the dithery doctor, whom the audience quickly comes to view with contempt.... until he insists that the police and the local squire, who has been stalking around with a rifle, ready to shoot some one, stand back, while he goes into the barn where they think the mad man is hiding: he may not be a fast thinker, but he is no coward.

In the end, the writing is too neat, the 'normal' people too hysterical, to offer a balanced view of the rights of the individual against public safety. Still, until the very end, it is a tense and worrying scenario.

Not often seen going by the very low number of reviews so far but it's well worth watching. Derrin Nesbit always puts in a great performance and has been under appreciated for decades. Very well filmed and acted with no one going over the top, even the younger actors and actresses were very good. This could have gone a number of ways at the end and some of the possible alternatives would have been acceptable.