MikeMagi Proof once again that a "B" picture needn't be "B" quality. But that was true of quite a few second features at MGM which gave even their lesser films a patina of quality. Lew Ayres stars as a drunk piano player cum songwriter who stumbles on a corpse and could be targeted by the police as the killer unless he can solve the crime. Sonny Tufts co-stars, wearing a suit that makes him look like a 300 pound wrestler walking around incognito. Ayres took a bad rap when he refused to serve as a soldier during World War 2 but distinguished himself as a medic. If nothing else, this film is a reminder of what a blithely ingratiating actor he was. Well worth watching

blanche-2 "No Escape" is a B movie starring Lew Ayres, Sonny Tufts, and Marjorie Steele, set in San Francisco.The best thing about this film is the look of the city, and all the '50s furnishings and men wearing hats. I know those features are in many films, but for some reason, I noticed them more in this.Lew Ayres plays alcoholic pianist/singer/songwriter John Howard Tracy who works in a club now that his career as a successful songwriter has ended. One night, a man named James Griffith gives him some money, which he doesn't realize until Griffith has left. He goes to his apartment to return the money and finds the man dead. There's also a sketch of a woman named Pat (Marjorie Steele), who was in the club earlier that evening.Tracy believes Pat to be the killer. Her boyfriend (Tufts) is a police officer who wants to frame Tracy for it and clear her. It goes from there, with Pat, unable to allow Tracy to be arrested for a crime he didn't commit, helps him while he's on the run.This film was made just ten years after "So Proudly We Hail" so what the hay happened to Sonny Tufts? He looks like a madman and a good 20 years older here. I admit I was never crazy about him, and I found his performance one note.Lew Ayres is very good, but the singing voice used seemed strange coming from him. Marjorie Steele only made a few films. She was an excellent stage actress and married - hello - Huntington Hartford, who got her into movies. But she retired to raise her family. She married twice more and today has commissions as a sculptor. A long way from "No Escape." An ordinary noir with great shots of San Francisco.

David (Handlinghandel) Lew Ayres, drinking? An out-of-work drunk? Well, here he is. And he's good. The whole cast is excellent. I have heard of Sonny Tufts but this is the first time I can think of that I've ever seen him. I think this is not his native terrain. But he's just right as a tanned, slightly disreputable police officer.Gertrude Michael plays the girl Ayres has been seeing, though she is not the female lead. I don't recognize that woman at all, though she looks like Lizbeth Scott. Michael was a bit of a scandal in "Murder at the Vanities." That movie was released almost 20 years before this one but she looks great here. She has the right feel for a noir actress, too. She's a bit under-the-weather, pretty but a little tarnished, and goodhearted.The San Francisco locations are good. The music isn't my cup of tea. But it in no way sinks the movie. It's a real find. Watch for it.

franzgehl John Tracy, former hit maker and now a looser, is accused having murdered a man who escorted a lady at home. Of course we know he's innocent but the thrill of this movie is to see how he looks for a way to escape from the trap. The city is closed up by the police. To that point, note the remarkable directing by Charles Bennett showing us all the ways out of this place. Moreover the sightseeing of the town is oppressive : the illuminated streets are surrounded by the cops' sirens, which make the spectator thrill as if he were at John Tracy's place. Watch this great one to discover it. I've seen this film on german TV and I was surprised to discover that it was forbidden to minor under 16. I still wonder why.