Port of Escape

A typical British B movie from the 1950's. Has two Australian actors playing Americans. Now that is really scraping the bottom of the barrel to try and earn a few extra dollars on the US circuit. I wonder if it worked? Actually this film has a very strong cast with some fine actors. It is just very claustrophobic with it's settings. It plods along but does not really grip you. Worth watching though for those who like to play spot the actor. Some interesting shots of how The Port of London once looked when the Thames was a working river and before the modern developers completely changed the landscape of the area. Lots of trilby hats and long raincoats on show in typical 1950's British black and white movie fashion.

The cast acts well in this bleak home invasion drama (vividly photographed as usual by Phil Grindrod) set in a houseboat on the Thames that captures the quiet desperation of life at the bottom of the heap during the fifties; with war veterans John McCallum and Bill Kerr rather resembling such mis-matched male couples as George & Lennie from 'Of Mice and Men' or Alan Ladd and William Bendix in 'The Blue Dahlia'.

Both later returned back down under (McCallum taking leading lady Google Withers with him), while further down the cast list Joan Hickson and Hugh Pryse (who died before the film was released) make notable impressions in the little screen time allotted them.

John McCallum and Bill Kerr are a couple of sailors on shore leave in London. The night gets rowdy and Kerr -- who's suffering from amnesia; all he can remember is that he's from Missouri -- shoots and kills a man. They flee onto the houseboat of society columnist Googie Withers, her sister Wendy Danielli, and maid Joan Hickson. McCallum and Kerr threaten the women, holding them captive as the police search for them.

It's good cast and decent story, but confined as it largely is to a couple of sets, lacks much of interest as a movie. There's some good character work between Withers and McCallum, who were husband and life in real life. However, the plot proceeds in a mechanical fashion, and beside the leading couple, there isn't much of interest for the other players to do.

PORT OF ESCAPE is a hostage drama that never really feels very suspenseful despite best efforts; it's far too sedate and genteel for that. It's a pity that the film isn't more gripping because the trappings of the genre are present and correct, it's just the execution which is a bit, well average. The storyline is about a couple of sailors on shore leave who get into a fight which leaves a man dead. Instead of giving themselves up they decide to hide out on a moored boat which just so happens to be occupied by three women, one of whom witnessed the crime. The rest of the film sees them trying to avoid the police investigations, headed over by genre regular Alexander Gauge.

The film has a mixed cast although most of the characters are underwritten so few have a chance to shine. John McCallum, an Australian star who later went on to produce the famous SKIPPY TV series, is the best of the bunch as the warm and conflicted killer, while Bill Keer is underutilised but quite effective as the psychotic one of the pair. Googie Withers is saddled with an annoying character who I never warmed to, although it's fun to see Joan Hickson in a much larger role than usual. My favourite character was Skinner, played by the delightful Hugh Pryse as a man who uses opportunity to make cash from the situation. If only the film was as fun as his character.

There are some good actors in this, and the setting is interesting, especially for those of us who know the East of London nowadays. Joan Hickson puts in a great cameo, and Bill Kerr is convincingly twitchy. However, this really is not a very good film.

Apart from the lack of tension, the very predictable playing out of the plot to its obvious ending, and the various very illogical decisions that practically every character makes, two particular problems stand out.

The most important is the not very impressive insight into female psychology. Would Googie fall in love with McCallum on the spot, just like that? Can Stockholm syndrome really set in after a couple of hours? Particularly as McCallum's character is pretty charmless, even as he thumps home his message that he is sacrificing all to get Bill Kerr back to Michigan.

And secondly, this is supposed to be a houseboat, yet appears to be the size of a decent suburban villa in Metroland. And furnished in more or less the same fashion. Three cabins and a spare one in case hostage-takers drop in. A giant living room containing the only grand piano ever on a Thames houseboat. And a galley that could host a cookery programme, complete with camera crew and audience. All with 15 foot high ceilings. This isn't a houseboat, it's a superyacht.