Robert J. Maxwell In some respects it resembles Hitchcock's "39 Steps." Recently released from prison, Emlyn Williams is mistakenly blamed for the murder of an old girl friend. Knowing he will be accused because of his record, he takes off from London to Manchester and back again. Along the way he meets diverse types of people, some suspicious, some affable. Half the pursuit takes place at night in an effectively conveyed torrent of wind and rain. Very atmospheric.Williams enlists the help of a dance hostess (what is a dance hostess?) whom he has known for years. Together they try to find out who the murderer might be. The young lady is Anna Konstam, a friend of the victim. They worked together at the Palais de Dance.It lacks the minor humorous touches that Hitchcock would have given it, the embedded short stories like the cheap farmer and his wife in "The 39 Steps." It's all suspenseful and grim.Enter the murderer, Ernest Thesiger, or, if you prefer, Doctor Septimus Praetorius from "The Bride of Frankenstein." Thesiger was quite a character. He was from an aristocratic family and mostly gay. There is a charcoal sketch of him as a young man by John Singer Sargent.He brings light to a dark movie. The guy looks like he's made of sticks and the shape of his skull is that of a football. He should leave his skeleton to the Royal Anthropological Society. Thesinger's performance can't accurately be called over the top. He reaches for the moon.An ex teacher of psychology, he insinuates his way effortlessly into the conundrum of the loving couple. His speech rings with eloquence. When he describes the reason for his involvement in the case, "Let us say it is because of my interest in the crepuscular recesses of the human mind." I love that phrase. I'm going to write it down and use it myself. What the hell, why not? Williams, the soi-disant ex-con and bum, speaks the ordinary middle-class dialect of southern England but with a fake underground touch to it. He said "ain't" and "who done it," but he says it in a way that doesn't suggest it comes naturally to him.It's an engaging flick, full of suspense and, after Thesinger's entrance, oddities. It's no masterpiece but it's an enjoyable diversion.

gordonl56 They Drive By Night - 1938 UKEmyln Williams is a minor crook who is getting out of Prison after doing an 18 month bit. The warden gives him his, One Pound and 6 pay, and then Williams is shown the Prison gates. Outside, there is a large crowd. There is going to be a hanging in the Prison in just a few minutes. A man, Simon Lack, approaches Williams and asks if he knew the condemned. Williams shakes his head and asks Lack the same question. "He is my brother". Answers Lack. Just then the 9 0'clock bell starts to toll. The hanging is over. Williams now heads into London and back to his old stomping grounds. He stops at the café of a friend, Ronald Shiner. Williams asks if his girl, Alice, is still around. Shiner says, "yes, still at the same place". Shiner then ask Williams if he is going to stay clean or get mixed up with the same bunch? Williams just smiles and heads out.Williams buys a small bunch of flowers and heads for his girl Alice's flat. He sneaks in to surprise her. A surprise is in order, but it is Williams who gets the buzz. He finds the woman dead in her bed. Williams quickly wipes down any fingerprints he might have left, grabs the flowers and exits. He beats the feet down the stairs but has the bad luck to run into the landlady. One look at William's face is enough to tell her something is wrong. Williams flees the building and bolts down the street. The landlady has a quick look upstairs and starts screaming. Williams parks his rear in an all day cinema to hide and calm down. Should he go to the Police? He just got out of jail! They will never believe him he decides. He will wait here till dark. Then he will split town. Once it is dark, he exits the theatre and grabs a bus to the end of the line. He will then hike to a trucker's stop and hopefully catch a ride up north. He buys a paper which of course already has his name and description all over the front page. It is pouring rain when Williams hits the trucker stop. He asks around for a ride. Driver, Alan Jeayes, offers to take him up to Manchester if that will help. One of the other drivers Jack Vyvian, starts to look at the description in the paper, then at Williams. He comes over to Williams and Jeayes, Vyvian shows Jeayes the newspaper and points at Williams. And so starts this superb UK thriller. The film features plenty of twists and turns and some outstanding photography. Well worth watching if you can find it. (B/W)

Charlot47 Taut British noir. set mostly after dark and indoors, about an innocent man on the run for a crime he did not commit (Emlyn Williams), the girl who helps him (Anna Konstam with a blonde perm), not quite a tart but with a heart of gold, and a creepy serial killer (Ernest Thesiger). Interesting for its inversion of the usual values of 1930s British films, in which the lower classes tend to be either comic or villainous or both. Here the murderer has the accent, the education, the aesthetic taste and the comfortable house while virtually all the other characters share the camaraderie of the working class, which includes a disinclination to say too much to the police.A number of similarities with Hitchcock films of the period, in particular "Young And Innocent", which also has a falsely accused man and a girl who believes in him trying to find the real murderer in a transport café and a dance hall.

writers_reign An interesting British entry to say the least dating from those dim dark days when William Hartnell was still 'Billy' but at least got a credit unlike Bernard Miles. Emlyn Williams is top-billed and co-star Anna Konstam appeared in only a handful of films including Waterloo Road before falling off the radar for some 30 years but the film is unbalanced in the last third by a tour de force from Ernest Thesiger in what is clearly a prototype Waldo Lydecker - there is even a facial resemblance especially in the mouth between Thesiger and Clifton Webb; both are aesthetes and both killers. This unbalance extends to the sets for whereas the three cafes that figure in the action are all utility Thesiger's apartment is well-appointed in the extreme. It's a fairly decent example of the innocent man caught at the scene of a crime, going on the run and taking up with a girl. Worth a look.