Sadly Over-hyped

Powerful

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I like Losey's films quite a bit - well The Servant in particular. This film is no Servant . It is a tour de force of overacting, particularly Leo McKern. I don't think I have ever seen such an over the top performance by anyone in anything. It really does him and the film no favours. Michael Redgrave acquits himself quite well but it must have been a thankless task holding on with McKern's histrionics. Ann Todd is the epitome of British middle-class angst and is very annoying for being so. I chose to watch this because it was a Losey film but it disappoints me in every way. It makes very little sense and could have done with much tighter editing and control over the actors' performances.

Michael Redgrave seldom turns in a bad performance and occasionally - The Browning Version - he unleashes a great one so he was definitely the selling point for this slightly off-the-wall entry. Several people in talking about this give Emlyn Williams a credit for the original play Someone Waiting but the 'official' credits here list only Ben Barzman and the implication is that it's an Original screenplay. Beginning with the murder of a young girl with the murderer clearly seen we then jump forward to a time when another man, clearly innocent, has been arrested, charged, stood trial, been found guilty and is now hours from execution, all this off screen. Enter Redgrave, flown in from Canada at the last minute and determined to save his son. The film can't decide if it's a race-against-time thriller to find the real murderer or an attack on capital punishment but Redgrave is always a good bet.

****SPOILERS****We see here that a father's love for his son has no bounds even to the point of willingly giving up his life to save him from going to the gallows. Just released from a Canadian sanitarium where he spent the last two years for acute alcoholism writer David Graham, Michael Redgrave, flies to England to save his son Alec, Alec McCowen, from being executed for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie Coles, Christina Lubicz.. It was Jennie who was found beaten to death at the Stanford Mansion where they both were attending a Christmas Eve party. Alec who was so drunk at the time can't remember what happened but feeling guilt for Jennie's death he meekly accepts the judgment of the court to have him executed.It's David Graham's stubborn determination to not only find his son Innocent but also who really murdered Jennie Coles that leads him to hit the bottle that he promised his son Alec never to do again that in his alcohol induced state eventually lead him to expose Jennie's killer but at the very cost of his own life! It takes a lot of legwork as well as shots of gin whiskey and scotch for David to get to the bottom of the bottle as well Jennie's murderer. In the end with time running out and David's son Alec about to take the 13 steps to the gallows he finally finds out who Jennie's killer really is-no surprise since we saw him murder her before the starting credits even rolled down the screen-the psychopathic and maniacal owner and a bit off his rocker sports car manufacture Robert Stanford, Leo McKern,who's sexual advances she resisted!****MAJOR SPOILERS**** With Alec's execution just minutes away David confronts Stanford at his office and after pleading for him, by admitting his guilt to the authorities, to save Alec's life then as a last resort does the unthinkable! That in him throwing caution to the wind and getting into a wild slug fest with Stanford in order to have him murder David as well! That's to prove to the courts that if Stanford was willing to murder David in preventing him exposing Stanford as Jennie's killer why wouldn't he have murdered Jennie herself! With David dead on the floor and the police as well as Stanford's adopted son Brian,Paul Daneman, breaking into Stanford's office and catching him,with the murder weapon,red handed the totally crazed and hyperventilating Stanford goes into a wild and uncontrollable tirade that should have easily and hands down won him the 1957 Academy Award as the years best actor!

When a film goes wrong, I find it's often a tossup as to who is to blame - the actors or the director. And what it comes down to, is whether it's one actor not doing a good job, or multiple actors not doing a good job. The former is likely the fault of the actor; the latter is likely the director's fault. In this film, I believer it's the director's fault.Certainly, Michael Redgrave is guilty of serious over-acting in this film. And to top it off, he seems very awkward throughout the film. Bill Williams as Lee CrenshawLeo McKern is also guilty of serious over-acting in this film. Paul Daneman seems terribly awkward, as well.On the acting front, that doesn't mean that every performance is bad. Ann Todd and Peter Cushing do well here.The story itself is decent, although trying to cram everything into a 24 hour time frame seemed awfully unreasonable. A 2-3 day story arc would have worked better and been more realistic.I've never been very impressed with British films from this era (they've gotten very good in recent years). And, I'm not very impressed with this film. It had potential, but the acting and direction ruined it. The one really high point -- a clever ending.