Tomorrow at Ten

A pre-stardom Robert Shaw kidnaps a rich kid and locks him in a room with a golliwog in which he has stitched a time bomb that is due to go off at the titular time. He's suitably creepy in a film that starts out strongly but which gets bogged down in some lengthy moral/ethical philosophising despite some unexpected plot twists. A visibly ageing John Gregson huffs and puffs as the uncompromising cop tasked with finding the kid.

Just an errata and clarification for some of the above:

This little gem of a film is now under the ownership of Renown Films and is shown periodically on Talking Pictures TV (TPTV). The film was produced in 1962 as is confirmed by the titles (MCMLXII). It was released in 1963,but not well received, despite the presence of John Gregson who was a well known TV and film actor who often played the role of a police detective. However it was re-released in 1965, after Robert Shaw had appeared as the assassin Donald Grant in the second James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963). William Hartnel, who would subsequently play the first Dr. Who (1963 - 1966) also appears in a cameo as Freddie Maddox (frequently misspelled as Freddy), the father of George Marlowe (Maddox) and, with his wife Masie (Dorothy) Maddox are proprietors of The Golliwog Club.

Marlowe is not whistling the theme to Z-cars as he constructs the 'golliwog bomb', but rather is whistling the old English nursery rhyme 'Pop Goes The Weasel' and even sings a couple of lines. He is whistling an unintelligible song as he enters Abots Mead and walks up the stairs - as he approaches the second floor landing whistling can be heard in the background but it is evident from the shot that he is not whistling. The last segment as walks across the landing to the nursery does,however, resemble the theme tune of Z-cars.

The house from which Jonathan Chester is taken by the kidnapper is cited as being 14 Winnington Road, Hampstead, London N2. Whilst it is built in the neo-Georgian style of many of the larger houses towards the Highgate end of Winnington Road, it is certainly not the house which now stands there. It was in keeping with the area which wealthy financiers such as Anthony Chester (Alec Clunes) lived in the 50s and 60s.

The house at which Jonathan Chester (Piers Bishop) was kept hostage is portrayed as 'Abbots Mead' in Wimbledon, described by the estate agent, Mr. Tamplin (Frank Hawkins) as a detached house on three floors. Whilst the Wolseley police car is certainly seen driving at speed down the A3 expressway (now the Kingston Bypass) the actual location has not been verified.

Suspenseful thriller in which Robert Shaw gets the lion's share as a kidnapper of a wealthy man's only son.The story almost entirely focuses on the villain and (it's rare ) tries to explain the reason why he did it .It's not only a matter of money as the viewer little by little discovers .The things themselves play a prominent part ,the ticking of the clocks or a jumping jack .The kidnapper is at hand ,under the police's eye ,like in more modern thrillers such as "oxygen" ;and of course there is a quarrel between the scared father and the police .The whole film is a race against the clock ,for the boy is in a house with a time bomb.

A surprisingly engaging feature sees John Gregson as a detective ("Insp. Parnell") brought into investigate the kidnap of the son of the wealthy "Chester" (Alec Clunes). Interestingly the kidnapper "Marlow" (Robert Shaw) has locked the child into an attic room in an unknown London address then gone to the man's home to demand the ransom in person - so we know all the characters from the start. Midway through, he there is an altercation and suffice to say the policeman has to try and track down the child from scratch. It's quite suspenseful, and the tight-knit cast keep the story moving well with quite a degree of jeopardy building, too.

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.