A young couple, Fred Lane (played by Barry Letts) and Nancy Bedford (played by Susan Shaw), are spending an evening together in a roadhouse. Fred is a decent, well meaning but rather dull person and it is clear that Nancy is bored with him and looking for excitement. Her desire looks set to be fulfilled when two men, the handsome and daring Captain Cole (played by Dermot Walsh) and his drunken, layabout friend Reggie (played by Roy Plomley) arrive. Cole is clearly attracted to Nancy and vice versa and things start off innocently enough when he invites her and Fred to play billiards with him whilst Reggie sits at the bar in a drunken sulk. Afterwards, Cole takes them for a drive in his Bentley and Nancy encourages him to show her how fast his motor can go. Emboldened by drink he does. He persuades Nancy to take the wheel whilst he lights a cigarette and, then, as the car flies around the corner, they hit what appears to be a man on a bicycle. Fred demands they turn around, go back and report the accident. Initially, Nancy feels the same way, but Cole is having none of it. They stop at another pub where Cole tries to persuade Fred not to call the police. However, Fred's conscience is too strong and when he goes to call them from a phone box outside, Nancy, afraid of the consequences, alerts Cole who strong arms him into the car. They drive off and Cole produces a hip flask filled with whisky to give to Reggie who is sat in the back of the car with Fred. Angry, Fred snatches it and throws it onto the floor. Nancy tells Fred that she no longer wants anything to do with him, belittles him and encourages Cole to beat him up, which he does. However, Fred manages to escape and the three of them search for him in the car with the increasingly drunk and dangerous Cole threatening to work him over properly this time. Meanwhile, Fred arouses a local postmistress who calls the police. Two officers pick up Fred and instruct him to show them where the supposed hit and run took place. But, on arrival, there is no sign. They see a house nearby with the lights on and decide to make enquiries there. A middle-aged couple answer the door and, since the husband is a poacher, he isn't keen to help. Then, one of the officers notices a damaged bicycle in the corner. It transpires that what Cole and Nancy had actually hit was the man's bicycle when it was propped up against a fence with a sack of potatoes hanging off the handle bars. Meanwhile, Cole, Nancy and Reggie are still driving around in the car. They think a police car is following them and Cole, having consumed a lot more whisky in the meantime, believes he is invincible and drives off at full throttle: "I can drive with one hand! I can drive with no hands!, he screams with hysterical, drunken laughter. Reggie is drunkenly egging him on, but now Nancy is truly terrified and begs him to stop. But it is too late and the three are killed in a horrific car crash.
One of the earliest features to be directed by Terence Fisher who, within a decade, would become the noted director of many of the classic Hammer horror films. This is, essentially, a 'B'-pic designed to warn us about the dangers of drunk driving told as a fictional story. Fans of Fisher's work cannot afford to miss this since it features a number of themes that the director would focus on in his greatest horror films. It plays as a good vs evil tale - albeit in a more conventional real life setting - in which Nancy abandons Fred, a good steady fellow, though rather boring, for a bad boy in the form of Captain Cole with whom she sees the possibility for excitement. Yet, in consequence, she drags herself and Fred into the gravest danger and pays the ultimate price for doing so as does Cole who shows absolutely no concern or remorse for the fact that he might have killed somebody (dragging others into it in the process) due to his wild, drunken escapades. Meanwhile, Fred, for doing the right thing, survives but is left devastated that all this mayhem and danger turned out to be over a sack of potatoes. Fisher's approach to direction here is taut and he succeeds admirably in conveying the story's underlying message to cinemagoers: don't drink drive. It must be said that it is somewhat amusing, as well as remarkable, that it has been put across in such an involved and serious way. A lesser director probably would have viewed it as a totally routine assignment and wouldn't have bothered. Performance work is good all round with Dermot Walsh standing out as the handsome but boisterous and evil Captain Cole. Barry Letts provides a complete contrast to Cole as the kindly, well meaning, if rather dull Fred while Susan Shaw convinces us that Nancy is the kind of girl who would ditch a good, steady type of guy for a wild man like Cole in search of thrills. There are other familiar faces to look out for in the cast, including Patricia Hayes as the postmistress and Sam Kydd as a policeman.