Best movie of this year hands down!

Sick Product of a Sick System

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

John Mills himself rated this one as a minor potboiler. Two things seem to deny this. One is the quality of the cast, which includes John McCallum, Geoffrey Keen, Thora Hird and Laurence Naismith, all seen at their best. The other is the quality of the IMDb reviews, a sure sign of discerning viewers either remembering this film all the way from the Fifties, or at least hearing about it.Whether or not it strictly qualifies as Film Noir, it is certainly a minor-key production, set against the grey half-world of the Thames estuary, so near and so far from metropolitan life. We linger for long minutes on the sheer barrenness of the landscape, which becomes the film's haunting theme. These were the North Kent marshes where, perhaps significantly, Dickens could often be seen walking at night, unable to sleep. A wasteland dotted with neglected little cottages, tumbledown cafés, scrap metal yards and sombre mudbanks lined with the eternal barges.It is on one of these barges, empty and abandoned beyond repair, that the Mills character has made his home after serving twelve years for a crime he didn't commit. Bent on revenge, he rejects all friendly overtures that might soften his resolve, and systematically sets out to stalk his prey.As others have commented, Mills was a less-obvious choice for this role. His sudden appearance at the front-door is supposed to paralyse his enemies with fear. Unfortunately he tries to cut a threatening figure by straining to stand as tall as he can. Being quite a small fellow, he simply looks silly in this posture, and should have learned to stare up at them menacingly from below.Then there was the matter of his accent. By this date, his wartime films were starting to be ridiculed for their unconvincing Shepperton cockney, so he wisely sticks to acting a hardened jailbird, without trying to impersonate one. Yet curiously, some other cast-members have not learned this lesson, and the falsity of the speech can sound jarringly dated.A wonderfully sinister performance by John Chandos. Also a touching scene on the barge, where Mills and a beautiful young refugee (Eva Bergh) start to compare their very different kinds of psychological baggage. Michael Martin Harvey provides the appropriate Greek chorus - and something more, as you will see - as the local ragamuffin, only slightly contrived, with a sea-shanty permanently on his lips.

A pretty good little British thriller which I happened to catch, unexpectedly, on television late one morning. John Mills (slightly miscast as a rough type) plays a guy fresh from doing a 12-year-stretch who decides to get revenge on those who were responsible for him being locked up for all those years. Yes, it's an overly-familiar story still being utilised even today (in the likes of OLDBOY), but it does well with the set-up.Mills sets up a kind of temporary home or shelter on some rotting hulks out on the mudflats and it's a highly effective place to build atmosphere. Sadly, the thriller aspects of the story are slightly less compelling than I was hoping for, although the characterisation is strong. Mills is the consummate professional and the supporting cast give some choice performances, including an early turn for James Bond's M, Geoffrey Keen. There are some great slices of action and chase scenes towards the climax which help to build excitement and make this a solid effort for the British studios of the era.

I caught this on film four a couple of weeks ago and thought it was excellent. It is a painful story at times, watching John mill's former lover grappling with her guilt, often physically is portrayed with undignified desperation. Her husband, the investigating officer quietly torn apart by the realisation of his own hand in a miscarriage of justice and his subsequently crumbling home and professional life. John Mills' constant struggle to realise a revenge that has torn him throughout his years in prison and an inability to exact that revenge. He shows, without being sanctimonious, how damaging and unfulfilled revenge is and the characters around him prove that redemption is always hard won.

This is not Chicago…this is postwar London. This is not Bogart…this is John Mills. This is film noir…the English way. I discovered this little known gem on TV the other day, while swapping between channels. I spent the next hour and a half glued to the screen. At first, John Mills would seem an unlikely choice for the leading role, but the film would not work without him. He perfectly portrays Davidson, a common man framed by his own girlfriend for a murder he did not commit. He is released after twelve years in prison and finds his girlfriend Fay now married to Lowthers, the policeman who investigated the case. Will Davidson seek vengeance? Or will he start a new life with Ilsa, a refugee girl he has just met? I cannot even imagine Humphrey Bogart or Robert Mitchum questioning if revenge is worthy. However, Mills possesses the innocence and fragility required to make his doubts believable. His tender relation with Ilsa is the best thing in the film. Both characters work as reflections of each other: Ilsa has been made orphan and destitute by the war, while Davidson's parents died while he was in jail. Ilsa works in a bar in the docks, where she suffers constant humiliations and abuse by the male customers. She falls for Davidson when he saves her from a rapist, and literally offers herself to him (no prizes for guessing: he is unable to resist her). We could be cynical about their motives for getting together…or we could see them as two human beings who desperately need to feel loved.One of the comments wonders why the Lowthers sleep in separate beds. The answer is censorship. Till the late 50s (this film was released in 1953), not even married couples were allowed to share a bed on screen. Davidson and Ilsa also sleep in twin beds in his tiny shack, even when a previous scene clearly suggests that they have become lovers. However, the film turns censorship to its advantage. One sequence alternatively shows both couples talking in bed. Davidson and Ilsa, the couple who are falling in love, have their beds joined at the headboard, so the camera can show them together in the same shot. Lowthers and Fay, the couple who are falling apart, have their beds separated by a bedside table, so their conversation is shown by means of alternate shots of one or the other. I totally agree that the title could not be more appropriate: this film will stay in your memory for a long time.