Excellent, a Must See

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Hunted is directed by Charles Crichton, has a screenplay by Jack Whittington and stars Dirk Bogarde, Jon Whiteley, Elizabeth Sellers and Geoffrey Keen.Chris Lloyd (Dirk Bogarde) discovers his wife (Elizabeth Sellers) is having an affair and he confronts the other man about it on a derelict building site and kills him. Unbeknown to him a small boy called Robbie (Jon Whiteley)is hiding there and witnesses the crime. Lloyd takes him and the pair go on the run. They are pursued by a Police Inspector (Geoffrey Keen). At first Lloyd is very quick tempered and is annoyed with Robbie but as they spend more time together the pair come to care for one another. Robbie comes from an abusive foster home and doesn't want to go back there.Bogarde is superb as the quick tempered and desperate man who despite his crime is not a monster. He goes through a real character change. As the film progresses he really begins to care for the boy and he's really gentle with him. The scene where Robbie asks him to tell him a story is very moving, especially when we realise Lloyd's telling the boy about what happened between him and his wife.Whiteley is excellent considering how young he is. He does a good job of conveying his fear of being touched (due to his abusive home life)and how he just wants some kindness in his life. You really feel sorry for him especially when Robbie and Lloyd become so attached because you know in reality this film can't have a happy ending.What this film does so well is make you feel the desperation, the fear and the difficulty of being on the run. Heavily populated places aren't safe because Lloyd could be recognised, every time he shows his face to try and get food or somewhere to stay for the night is a risk. As the film goes on Lloyd and Robbie become like two animals running from a pack of hunters. We want them both to escape and be happy with one another, yet we know that Lloyd's crime must be punished and that the film can only end in tears. Lloyd's decision on the boat for the sake of Robbie is enough to make anyone shed a tear.An excellent and poignant thriller that's a must see for Bogarde fans. Tiger Bay (1959)is another film very similar to this and is highly recommended if you enjoyed Hunted.

In the 1950s, Dirk Bogarde played three main sorts of roles in films--sailors or soldiers, the nice Dr. Sparrow in the Doctor movies as well as complete sociopaths. Of these roles, the sociopaths are by far the most interesting to watch. During this time, he often played murderers and crooks on the run. So, when I first started watching "The Stranger in Between", it came as no surprise as he's once again playing a murderer on the run! However, as the film progresses you realize that this seemingly simple film has a lot more depth to it--depth that make it a standout picture.When the movie begins, a cute little boy is hiding after he'd been playing with matches. He stumbles into the hiding place of Chris (Bogarde)--a guy who is wanted for murder! Chris doesn't want to let the boy go--he could tell people where he's hiding. So he convinces the boy that the police are looking for BOTH of them and they set off together on a cross-country run to avoid capture.About midway through this movie, you start to notice some things that make it interesting. Chris isn't just a mindless killer--his motivations and what he did exactly aren't quite so black and white. The boy also is not just some scared kid--he's been terribly abused and in some ways he's better off on the run with a killer than staying in his former life! The film also has a few unexpectedly nice moments between the two. Chalk this up to excellent acting, writing and direction. Where is this all going? Well, see the film to find out for yourself.

Hunted (AKA: The Stranger In Between) is directed by Charles Crichton and co-written by Jack Whittingham and Michael McCarthy. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Jon Whiteley, Elizabeth Sellars and Kay Walsh. Music is by Hubert Clifford and cinematography by Eric Cross.Story finds Bogarde and Whiteley as man and boy on the run for differing reasons. Bogarde's Chris Lloyd is a fugitive, Whiteley's Robbie a orphan being mistreated in his adoptive home. The odd couple, fleeing authority, but heading where?Haunting yet beautiful, firm but tender, Hunted is a terrific piece of Brit film noir that holds you in its grip from beginning to end. Film unfolds as being about two lost souls traversing the British lands, from a ravaged London in the beginning to a Scottish harbour at the end. Initially suspicious of each other, with the adult inconvenienced by his child companion, the relationship will develop as their respective demons surface. Who is the more frightened of the two? What hope is there for them? Fate has brought them together, but fate can often deal a deadly hand, what hand has been dealt Chris and Robbie? It's this question that hangs heavy in the tense story, ensuring our attention at all times.As the journey takes them out of the city, into the country and finally out to the sea shore, we are treated to no end of visual smarts. Imagery is a big part of Hunted's worth to the film noir enthusiast, be it monuments or various building structures, Crichton (Dead of Night) and Cross (The Mystery of the Marie Celeste) ensure that the simmering narrative is well served by locations and items that surround our two protagonists. Shadowed balustrade, spiral staircase, murky street lights, dingy basement, low lighted farm houses, barns, haystacks, railway sidings, medieval relic structure, and on it goes, all given a forbidding sheen by the makers, backed significantly, too, by Clifford's music swells and low rumble peters.Some means and motivations are purposely left grey, which means we get more dramatic/emotional impact for certain passages of dialogue, such as a bedtime story sequence that grips the heart considerably. The acting is first rate from Bogarde (Victim) and Whiteley (Moonfleet), very believable is their relationship (they would also make The Spanish Gardner together in 56), with Bogarde never better as he shifts seamlessly from a man of fiery rage and panic, to a tender soul reaching out in the shadows, desperately searching for redemption.Now available on DVD with a very good print, Hunted is yearning to be seen by more people. It deserves it, a real treat, both thematically and visually, one of the best new discoveries for me in 2012. 9/10

Britain just after the second world war must have been a grim place indeed. Still looking like a bomb site, with poor living standards, inadequate social services, stifling conformity and tough policing. Amid this bleak social landscape, Bogarde is a hopeless, alienated character fleeing from the police after a crime of momentary passion. He is joined by a scared and emotionally scarred small boy also on the run from a harsh reality. Their journey together is gruelling yet at the same time strangely aimless, as they focus on escaping the past with little idea of their future. Like all good road movies, the journey changes the characters, as they are affected, enriched and ultimately redeemed by their own striving and by their personal interaction. Any more detail would spoil this story but you can be guaranteed of a fine reward at the end if you can stick with the grinding progress of this particular odyssey.Filmed in suitably bleak black and white, there's a slightly too earnest quality about the way this movie strives to put everything in the worst possible perspective – but that's when looked at from the comfortable perspective of half a century later when life is a lot softer for many of us. Go the distance with this one and you'll be a better person for it.