Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

mlink-36-9815 It was issued by Columbia I suppose on a double bill which accounts for the cuts. The beginning is cut and the chase is cut and there are small cuts throughout. the cuts might be alright if you dont see the original - once you do you'll understand how vile Columbia were. basically it was a louis b. mayer tribute film.

writers_reign It's more than possible than David Cornwell saw this film and kept the idea of a British secret agent getting fired and then taking a dead-end job in mind when he came to write The Spy Who Came In From The Cold a good decade later. Naturally it's not quite straightforward plagiarism, for one thing Trevor Howard really is fired whereas Richard Burton was only pretending; against that both ex-spies take similar jobs, Howard in a private house and Burton in a left-wing private library. That's still not as referential as the Clouded Yellow gets because next comes the one about Sonia Dresdel trying to send Jean Simmons mad - straight out of Gaslight and, for good measure, we get a touch of the 39 Steps as Howard and Simmons take it on the Jesse Owens with the Lake District standing in for Scotland. None of this would matter if there was even a spark of chemistry between Howard and Simmons, alas, a romance between Stalin and Mother Teresa would be more convincing. On the other hand nostalgia buffs will have a field day spotting the likes of Richard Pearson, Sam Kydd, Richard Wattis, Dandy Nichols, Geoffrey Keen and more all fretting and strutting their hour upon the stage. Poor Butterfly indeed.

howardmorley I rated this film only 6/10 which agrees with the overall IMDb.com average rating.As other reviewers have aptly pointed out above, this Ralph Thomas directed film does not have the quirky comedy, pace or nail biting finish of a Hitchcock.However It has some similarities enough to show Thomas was at least influenced by that great master.Jean Simmons was 22 when she made this film and was at a stage in her career when agents were casting her in roles where she had psychiatric problems.One only has to think of her "Ophelia" in Laurence Olivier's "Hamlet" (1948) and "Angel Face" (1952), the psychotic daughter of Herbert Marshall.Much as I admire Trevor Howard I do not see him as a romantic lead (unless he is wooing Celia Johnson. i.e. an older woman); so I would have preferred a younger looking and more handsome leading man.The final scene (as pointed out above by another reviewer) showed them walking along the rooftops of the Liverpudlian warehouse, arm in arm but it looked more like father and daughter!! (Note: I know Trevor Howard always looked older than he really was).I guess he obtained this cloak & dagger type part on the strength of his army officer cracking down on black market traffickers in Carol Reed's "The Third Man" (1949). Barry Jones often appeared in professorial type roles and he made a menacing "baddy".I love spotting character actors in films of this vintage such as Sam Kydd as a police wireless operator and the actor Richard Wattis who played the employment consultant (the same year he played the maths master in "The Happiest Days of Your Life" with Alistair Sim).Also I spotted Dandy Nichols as a harassed mother on the train, long before she would rise into public awareness as Mrs Garnett in the 60s TV comedy series " 'Till Death Do Us Part" with Warren Mitchell.Kenneth More was really serving his film acting apprenticeship and before long he would play a lead in "Genevieve" (1953).Have a look at Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps" (1935) with Robert Donat & Madeleine Carroll and particularly compare the chase scenes over the wild countryside, then compare the pacing, humour and interplay between the principal actors and you will see why this film ,although good, only warrants a 6/10.

dave-blake Hitchcock was of the opinion that audiences aren't really interested in what puts protagonists into danger - only that they ARE in danger, and need to escape.This film proves Hitchcock was not 100% correct. Police believe Jean Simmons is guilty of a crime, when she plainly isn't. Trevor Howard decides their best course of action is to run for it. And so, the body of the movie has our charismatic pair dodging on and off trains, buses and coaches - jumping across rocks at the top of a waterfall - scrambling across dockyard roofs.All good exciting stuff - but I couldn't get out of my mind that it was all unnecessary. They should have stayed put.In other words, the MacGuffin wasn't strong enough.