Breakout *** (1959, Lee Patterson, Hazel Court, Terence Alexander, John Paul, Billie Whitelaw, Dermot Kelly, William Lucas) – Classic Movie Review 13,768

The exciting 1959 British crime thriller film Breakout stars Lee Patterson as a government official with a lucrative sideline in springing prisoners from jail.

Director Peter Graham Scott’s exciting 1959 British second feature crime thriller film Breakout is based on the 1959 novel by Frederick Oughton, and stars Lee Patterson, Hazel Court, Terence Alexander, John Paul, Billie Whitelaw, Dermot Kelly, and William Lucas.

Lee Patterson stars as government draughtsman office worker George Munro, who is now hard up – he can’t afford a TV! – but has had a lucrative sideline as escape expert in springing prisoners from jail, and this time he is freeing an embezzler from time at her majesty’s pleasure. The good cast and neat yarn both entertain nicely in this nifty, tense little crime thriller.

John Paul plays jailed confidence trick fraudster Arkwright, who gets his wife Rita Arkwright (Hazel Court) to contact Chandler (William Lucas) to say that he wants out of the prison where he has been sent to serve a seven-year sentence and arrange his freedom in return for £1,500. Rita visits Chandler and his shady, womanising Oxford-educated business partner Steve Farrow (Terence Alexander) to seal the deal, and the duo contact George Munro to organise springing Arkwright from the jail with a delivery van rigged with a fake panel in the back where he can hide. Chandler has employed Munro on a similar job three years earlier, and still has him in his address book of regulars.

Lee Patterson is unusually strong in the star role as the American escape expert now working in a humble office in the UK, a quietly spoken and courteous kind of man driven to crime but still actually the hero of the film, while William Lucas, Terence Alexander, Hazel Court (as as Arkwright’s wife Rita Arkwright), and Billie Whitelaw (as George’s wife Rose Munro) are indispensable in support, all good actors helping to make the story and their characters credible and characterful. Alexander and Court are both splendidly sleazy and devious, so much so that we could see more of them, while the young Whitelaw is sexy and appealing, a showstopper.There’s also space for Dermot Kelly’s comedic Irish old lag O’Quinn, who gets himself jailed for a month along with Arkwright so he can aid the freedom break plot. Kelly just about gets away with the rather broad comedy.

Peter Barnes writes a powerful screenplay, intent on driving the story while marshalling a fairly large cast of characters, and Peter Graham Scott directs tautly and intensely, moving it along apace in its fairly breathless 62 minutes. Plenty of time is spent on the characters and their relationships to give the film a solid, convincing backdrop. The long climax section of the freedom break is well done, particularly tense and exciting.

The scenes between Lee Patterson as George Munro and Billie Whitelaw as Rose Munro are especially good, mostly perhaps because of the acting but they are also well written and directed. Alexander and Court’s couple of little scenes go well too. John Paul’s role as Arkwright is considerable but unrewarding, inevitably so as he is literally a passenger in the story. There are unexpected whiffs of homosexuality in the William Lucas character of Chandler and his interest in Steve Farrow (Terence Alexander) and in the suspicious but helpful prison guard and his interest in George Munro (Lee Patterson) during the prison break. It is there but subtle and understated.

[Spoiler alert] It’s a shame that Brit films of the era had to have a crime doesn’t pay message, so we know from the start that the crooks aren’t going to get away with it, spoiling the surprise. But there’s still a lot of suspense involved in how they get away from the jail and how they eventually get caught. It’s all very neat and satisfying.

It is shot at the Beaconsfield Film Studios, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, the home of the National Film and Television School since 1971, with location shooting in the West End area of Aldershot, Hampshire, and in Uxbridge. The Aldershot East Cavalry Barracks gates and forecourt stand in for those of the film, and they really do look like a prison. There is enough outside filming to keep it interesting,

Cast: Lee Patterson as George Munro, Hazel Court as Rita Arkwright, Terence Alexander as Steve Farrow, John Paul as Arkwright, Billie Whitelaw as Rose Munro, Dermot Kelly as O’Quinn, William Lucas as Chandler, Estelle Brody as Maureen O’Quinn, Lloyd Lamble as Inspector, Tom Naylor as Joe Woolard, Benny Nightingale as Sam the mechanic, Rupert Davies as Morgan, Neil McCarthy as getaway driver, George Woodbridge as landlord, Doris Hare as Mrs O’Quinn, Robert Vossler as Sergeant Adams, George Bishop as Judge, and Glyn Houston as man in pub.

Breakout is directed by Peter Graham Scott, runs 62 minutes, is made by Independent Artists, is released by Anglo Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK), is written by Peter Barnes, based on the novel by Frederick Oughton, is shot in black and white by Eric Cross, and is produced by Leslie Parkyn and Julian White.