Tomorrow at Ten

When I watch a film like TOMORROW AT TEN, I'm a bit bemused because I can't understand why it's not better known. This is a cracking little thriller, one of the best of its era, and it really should be talked about today by film fans instead of being forgotten by all but the most dedicated viewers of the era. It's a pity that B-movie thrillers like this one are so little known as this sort of film more than holds its own against modern fare.

There's no padding or fat in this story which gets going from the outset. A delightfully mannered Robert Shaw (on the cusp of stardom in FROM Russia WITH LOVE, although TOMORROW AT TEN was made in 1962 and not released until 1965) plays a kidnapper who abducts the son of a rich businessman and locks him in a room with a bomb hidden inside a Golliwog. The boy's father and a local detective inspector must negotiate before the bomb explodes - 'tomorrow at ten'.

It's a great concept and the experienced director Lance Comfort makes a fine job of it. There's suspense in spades here, alongside plot twists you won't see coming and a delightfully tense race-against-the-clock (literally!) climax. The supporting cast includes notable roles for Kenneth Cope, Alec Clunes (father of Martin), Harry Fowler, William Hartnell, and Renee Houston. John Gregson's long-suffering detective inspector is one of the most sympathetic of his career.

Detective Inspector John Gregson gets called in on a kidnapping. Robert Shaw has kidnapped a rich man's son and hidden him some place in London, with a bomb that will explode at 10 the following morning. Let him catch his plane to unextraditable Rio, and when he's safe, he'll phone in plenty of time. The man whose son has been abducted agrees. Gregson's superior agrees. Gregson thinks it's handing license to every would-be kidnapper in the country. He thinks he can break Shaw. He's making a good start, when the rich man attacks Shaw in a frenzy, rendering him unconscious.

It's a well performed little thriller, with the hurry-up-and-wait sequences very telling, and a few familiar faces in small roles; William Hartnell is present in a throwaway cameo, paired with Renee Houston. There's the stereotypical last minute race to save the boy, but even that ends with a twist.

George Marlow (Robert Shaw) devises what he thinks is the perfect kidnapping. He buys a doll and places a time bomb inside of it. He then picks a day when a chauffeur who usually takes the son of a rich man to school is ill, substitutes for him, and takes the boy to a large house that he has rented. He then locks the boy in an upper story room in the house with the doll-bomb in the same room. He goes to the rich man and says he wants fifty thousand pounds or else the bomb will go off and kill his son the next day at 10AM . Marlow says he plans to get on an international flight with the money and when he arrives at the destination he will call the rich man and tell him where the boy is so he can be rescued in time.

Not knowing anything but that the boy has been kidnapped, the nanny calls the police. Detective Inspector Parnell (John Gregson) arrives and tells Marlow he is not going anywhere, bomb or no bomb. Parnell has a long success of talking to suspects until they give something away, and he has almost 24 hours to do that here. In the meantime, Parnell is being opposed by the boy's father who even offers Parnell fifty thousand pounds to let the kidnapper go and by his own police commissioner who is a close friend of the rich man. And there are a couple of ironic plot twists along the way. I don't want to say any more than that.

This film could have gotten claustrophobic in a hurry if it was just Shaw and Gregson alone in a room verbally sparring for the length of the film, and I will tell you there is much more to it than that.

The most telling points of this neat little British second feature, are the strong cast of Shaw, Gregson, Clunes, Wheatley and Cope, allied with a lively script and tight direction from Lance Comfort. The plot is tidy and unfussy and proceeds well towards its somewhat novel conclusion. Robert Shaw is excellent as the disturbed kidnapper, Marlow, and sterling support is provided by John Gregson as the police inspector. Some of the scenes are a little over the top, especially the one concerning the dancers in the nightclub, which by today's standards is quite hilarious! Not a classic by any means, but well worth watching in any event.

Not bad, especially because of the exceptional actor who was Robert Shaw. John Gregson is also very good, natural. All the actors are very good, which makes the film bearable, since everything is just talk, just boring dialogue.