Breakout (1959)

62 Minutes, and no mucking around.

The judge has hardly finished reading out the sentence he imposed on Arkwright, than his wife is getting in touch with 'fixer'. Chandler, who will arrange to spring him from prison. We do get a chance to draw breath during the cosy domestic scenes between the civil servant ex-con chosen for the job, played by charismatic Lee Patterson, and wife Billie Whitelaw, before we're off and running again and our hearts are in our mouths when it looks as if the break will be frustrated.

This is the kind of film that Woody 'One Shot' Van Dyke would have been proud to have made in his heyday: no muss, no fuss, just give the public what they want.

It ain't art, but I loved it, and it ended with a smile on my face, although I'm not saying who else had.

Zippy direction, good location shooting, including car chases, a 'bar- room brawl', and 'a bit on the side'. What more do you want?

Wonderful playing by Patterson, Whitelaw, Hazel Court, as Arkwright's glamorous 'femme fatale' wife, and the perennially caddish Terence Alexander. With Dermot Kelly, as the Irishman who whips up a storm in a bar, in order to become the inside man And almost steal the film.