matthewmercy Written by later British horror movie regular John Gilling, A Gunman Has Escaped is a tatty time-waster dating from 1948, though technically it certainly feels as though it was made significantly earlier than that. Obviously 'inspired' by such films as Odd Man Out and Brighton Rock (both 1947), it is a real oddity in that the cast seems to lack any recognisable faces, the story is essentially devoid of incident, and the acting comes across as real repertory theatre-standard stuff. Lead John Harvey gives a music hall-style impersonation of a 'cockney geezer' as a thuggish crook who accidentally shoots a member of the public during a robbery, and has to go on the run with a pair of accomplices; fleeing to the countryside 'somewhere up north', the trio's cover is blown by a salt-of-the-earth farmer in record time (mainly down to the fact that they seem to try and behave as shiftily as possible), before Harvey's moronic ringleader heads back to London for a showdown with the gang boss he thinks has grassed him up...I didn't recognise Harvey at all when I was watching the movie, though a quick glance at his filmography shows that he actually had minor parts in Hitchcock thrillers (Stage Fright), Hammer flicks (X the Unknown, The Satanic Rites of Dracula), comedies (Private's Progress, Double Bunk), and a whole host of UK TV shows in a career lasting over forty years. Though not helped here by the somewhat dodgy editing and ropey sound quality, his performance certainly feels artificial (I'm no expert, but I'm certain murderous London gangsters wouldn't have been any more likely to use the word 'perisher' in 1948 as they are in 2016), and it is by no means the worst or most incongruous one in the picture. As posh boy army deserter Sinclair, John Fitzgerald seems to be trying to channel Leslie Howard in The Petrified Forest, his performance consisting of nothing but florid, inappropriate Shakespeare quotes and defeatist wisecracks, whilst the rest of the cast are mainly forgettable (that said though, a bit-part player called Frank Hawkins isn't bad as the canny farmer).The work of a director named Richard M. Grey, who appears to have made hardly anything else, this minor effort's fate as having gone unseen for several decades is not particularly surprising. A museum piece from British cinema's archives that endures only for the academic interest it might hold for film scholars, there is essentially no entertainment value here for the casual viewer of today.

Leofwine_draca A GUNMAN HAS ESCAPED is a low budget British crime thriller released in the postwar years. The darker-than-dark subject matter may have been offputting to the jaded, war weary audiences of the time, although it's held up well for modern viewers. There are no familiar faces in the cast here, making this something of a real obscurity.The storyline is a simple one about a trio of crooks hiding out at a farmhouse. They're already the subject of a manhunt by police thanks to their murdering of a passer-by during the robbery, but the intervention of family members at the farm leads to the group falling out, somewhat inevitably. The storyline is completely predictable, but the script keeps you focused on the action, and I notice that future director John Gilling had a hand in it. The ending is fun.

malcolmgsw This film seems to have been made on an ultra low budget. The story concerns a gang of robbers,where the leader shoots and kills a passer who tried to intervene. When they return to their hideout the leader decides that all 3 of them must do a runner.They go out into the countryside and hijack a van.They find a farm where they get work and one of the gang falls for the farmers daughter.However locals become suspicious and they have to flee.However one of the robbers wants to go back to London,and he is shot by the leader.He and the other gang member go back to London.At their hideout a lot of shooting takes place and the police finally arrive when the dust has settled.All rather second rate

GUENOT PHILIPPE OK, I agree it will remain a totally unknown feature, even in UK. The copy I watched probably came from a private collection, or a bootlegged 16mm duplicate, I can't tell, and I don't care. I got it. Period. The late forties British films, I don't know much, but this one, even with unknown actors and director - but not screenwriter, the great John Gilling himself - is really worth watching. At the beginning, during the first thirty minutes, it may seem talkative, but the last part is rather tough, rough, brutal, not foreseeable at all. The story of a batch of gangsters on the run after a killing, a heist. And also a sharp, abrupt ending. No more to tell about this little gem, which is not a masterpiece, and that many among you would forget one day after seeing it, but it deserves to be discovered.