Port of Escape (Dir: Tony Young, 1956).
Noir-ish British B-movie crime flick starring real life husband and wife John McCallum and Googie Withers. Based upon Barbara S Harper’s short story Safe Harbour.
Having just docked in London, seaman Mitch Gillie (McCallum) accidentally kills a man in a knife fight while protecting his pal Dinty. On the lam and needing an escape route they commander the houseboat of gossip columnist Anne Stirling (Googie Withers). At first fearing the men, Anne, her sister (Wendy Danielli) and their housekeeper (Joan Hickson) eventually try to help the pair when they learn of Dinty’s mental illness.
There is some potential in the story in Port of Escape and the cast is decent but it never quite manages to overcome the constraints of a low budget second feature. A convoluted narrative doesn’t help. The change of heart by Anne toward her captors seems merely a device to spice up proceedings and capitalise on the real life relationship of its stars. Any real threat to the women posed by the bad guys is severely undermined by such an implausible plot twist. The device used to capture the bad guys is so obvious it may have been announced with a fanfare of trumpets. Although when the moment does arrive it is effective handled, if rather brief.
On the plus side, the dockside scenes add atmosphere, but unfortunately they are outnumbered by the interior scenes.
Port of Escape is by no means a bad movie. Predictable and corny yes, but entertaining nonetheless. If you have a taste for vintage British B-movies you will certainly find this worth watching.
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