Awesome Movie

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Surprising british noir directed by a brazilian Alberto Cavalcanti,the high point of the movies are certainly the smart dialogues between the colorful characters in special way Mary Merrall as Aggie an old woman who support the gang asking everytime a little gift,Griffith as gang's leader don't stay back on a stunning performance as cold lower class crook which apply all kind of violence to take foward his leadership,Trevor as always fine as newcomer gang who is framed few days after joined them,the escape of prision until reach in London is fabulous,very impressive british noir with class,almost a masterpiece!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 9.25

Ex serviceman Trevor Howard (Clem) is bored now that the war is over and agrees to join a criminal gang headed up by spiv boss Griffith Jones (Narcy) who peddles whatever contraband comes in – cigarettes, meat and even sherbet. I love sherbet. It seems a funny thing to ban, though. Anyway, Howard is enraged by the fact that this sherbet is being peddled unlawfully. He obviously feels for the sweetshop traders. His stand on sherbet causes a rift with Jones. Jones has plans for Howard. Not good ones.There are a few good things going for this film including the ending which wouldn't be allowed in Hollywood in which the dialogue as delivered by Jones is completely unexpected and standout. There is also a memorable sequence with housewife Vida Hope (Mrs Fenshaw) who wants a favour of Howard in return for sheltering him whilst he is on the run. Vida is really freaky! The cast are a mish-mash. I didn't think any of the women convinced and I couldn't relate to any of the male cast. Trevor is OK in the lead. And what is it with the names of the gang? I thought one guy was called 'Sophie' for most of the film. And the lead gangster is just one letter away from being called 'Nancy'. But I think that falls in line with British gangsters of the time – note 'Pinkie' from "Brighton Rock" made in the same year. Of course, the famous 'nancy-boy' Kray twins popped up later in 1960s London.The film is OK but watch out for the fake fights. The rubber milk bottles that are hurled about and bounce off people's heads contrast sharply with the sequence when Sally Gray (Sally) gets beaten up. The violence towards women in this film is disturbing and once again, the dialogue as delivered by Jones is menacing during these sequences. Overall, it's not quite up there with the best.

This is a very gritty British example of film noir. Unlike its American counterpart, this film was filled with cursing--something you could not get away with in Hollywood. Otherwise, in many ways the film was much like an American version--nice camera angles, tough dialog and lots of not particularly handsome actors! The film begins with Trevor Howard looking for work with some mobsters. While he's keen on the idea of making some illegal money, he has some moral scruples. So, when they try to get him to deal with drugs, he refuses--and incurs the wrath of the gang leader. To pay him back, the leader arranges for Howard to be blamed for running over a cop! As a result, Howard is sent to jail to serve a 15 year sentence. However, he soon breaks out and swears revenge on the gang.Overall, the film gets high marks for realism and excitement. The end was not perfect (too many times the baddies were able to just knock the gun out of the hands of the good guys and vice-versa--I would have simply plugged them the second I got my hands on the gun!), but was still very satisfying. I particularly liked the violent ending as well as how Howard's exoneration was handled--it came as a bit of a surprise--and I like to be surprised. Good acting and direction make this one a winner.By the way, although I liked this film, there was a weird, flat performance from the wife who sheltered Howard after he escaped. While her character was exceptionally interesting, up until the final moments with her she seemed almost like she was in zombie mode! I am not sure what she and the director were trying to achieve here.

I borrowed the Kino Video release of this from my public library today. I'd never heard of it before and, having just watched it, I can say I'm really amazed this is not a famous movie in the United States. I'm not sure if it's very well-known in England or not. Like another landmark British movie, BLOW-UP, THEY MADE ME A FUGITIVE is directed by a foreigner. There is more attention to sound and camera-work than I've noticed in most British movies from the end of the war until about 1956 or so. Warner Brothers gets a huge credit at the start, and I'm wondering if that studio merely distributed it in the United States or if British audiences also saw "Warner Brothers" in huge letters on the screen. It has a lot in common with the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall movies of the forties, and the screenwriter, Noel Langley, had worked in Hollywood on several movies, notably THE WIZARD OF OZ. So, it's British, but it has American and continental style. I mention Bogart. I should also mention Richard Widmark. Clem and Narcy easily could have been played by those two actors with no change in approach. There's a rooftop scene later echoed in TO CATCH A THIEF and the words "It's Later Than You Think" keep appearing, and I've seen at least two later movies which make use of that. It's scarier than the American gangster movies of the late forties.Also, the title begs comparison to the 1939 Warner Brothers picture THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL and an early-thirties one called I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG. A typical American gangster movie from the thirties had a World War One vet who sells bootleg liquor during the Great Depression and THEY MADE ME A FUGITIVE makes the protagonist a World War Two vet dealing in rationed items such as cigarettes and liquor. There seems to have been a conscious effort, in the making of this movie, to capture the audience American gangster movies had had in Britain. Perhaps there was an effort to get an American audience, too. See it for good acting, wonderful production and, most importantly, unexpected realism. If it's clichéd, it's put together so well as to seem fresh almost sixty years after it was made. And seeing Peter Bull cheered me up.