trimmerb1234 Bad boy Peter Reynolds has a back story - would be getaway driver who panics and leaves his companions to be caught bang to rights outside the bank. Unusually this important bit of action with which the film starts never comes back to bite him nor play any further part. He instead swans off to Devon to cadge lodgings from his rather estranged bachelor shotgun-toting uncle who though surly nevertheless does the decent thing.Something Reynolds does not reciprocate, casually thieving from all who put any trust in him. An unexpected visitor in form of an attractive young woman (Elizabeth Sellars) arrives who he mistreats, giving great offence to his uncle. The bad boy departs the scene, leaving just the young woman remaining with the uncle. Later another unexpected visitor, an older woman arrives and joins the two. The situation, for good reasons, is exceedingly uncomfortable indeed impossible for all three.Beautifully shot on location, it is a pleasure to watch. The story is perhaps old-fashioned, resembling in outline at least a Victorian novel particularly the stiff-upper lipped decent rather taciturn uncle. But it is 1950 and rural rather than city ways so is believable. However modern viewers evidently find the moral dilemmas tiresome and the lack of violent action (spoiler alert - the shotgun is neither fired nor even brandished) in consequence boring. But if you see through the eyes of the participants, it is quite gripping at times and end completely believable.

Leofwine_draca GUILT IS MY SHADOW is a low rent British crime drama that fails thanks to the writing, in particular the character of Jamie played by Peter Reynolds. Jamie is the film's protagonist and gets way too much screen time considering that his obnoxious character is one of the most annoying ever; the viewer has to sit through scenes and scenes of him treating everybody like dirt, while the warm and sympathetic characters as played by Patrick Holt and Elizabeth Sellars don't get as much of a look in.The story's rural setting (it was filmed in Devon) is an interesting one. Jamie is a getaway driver who escapes the heat to live at his uncle's place, but he's soon getting involved in petty crime. The arrival of his wife complicates things. This is quite a slow paced story but it does pick up with a murderous twist later on. The acting is generally of a strong standard and there are bit parts for Esma Cannon and Desmond Llewelyn. A pity that the ending is prohibited by the usual moral constraints of the era as it ends on a very downbeat and depressing note.

Marlburian I'm prejudiced in favour of GIMS because a lot of it was filmed in Devon c1950, just before I moved to the county, and I'm prone to nostalgia. I liked the scenes shot in Ashburton and the agricultural fair - very evocative of simpler - perhaps happier - times.Putting aside the Devon content, the film is a reasonable post-war low-budget film. Before seeing it, I hadn't been aware of Peter Reynolds, who came over as a type like David McCallum in his young tearabout roles. Elizabeth Sellars reminded me a little of Joan Collins, but nicer. And in a pub scene one can glimpse "Q" himself - Desmond Llewelyn. Apart from the token Devonshire accent, everyone seemed to speak every so nicely.Film industry conventions of the time demanded that people should pay for their crimes, whatever the provocation, and there were no great surprises at the end.The only jarring note was the scene in the foggy churchyard.GIMS was one of the best things I saw on TV over the Christmas-New Year period - which may not say much for everything else!Incidentally, there's a brief scene of a small train arriving at "Welford Station" - perhaps the branch line terminus at Ashburton. There was actually a Welford Park station on the Lambourn Valley Railway, north west of Newbury, that served the hamlet of Welford.

malcolmgsw Jamie the bad sheep of the family gets involved in a robbery and flees to his relatives farm in the west country.subsequently his wife arrives.however the wife falls for farm life and Patrick Holt simultaneously.The wife finds Jamie stealing money from a tin box.she struggles with him and eventually hits him on the head.he dies and is buried on the farm.his absence is noted and eventually the police come to search the farm but cannot find the body.however in one of those logic defying moments that happen so often in films of that era it is clear that the wife will confess to the police.it is extremely slow and in the end rather dull and disappointing.