A London docker called Tom Masterick (played by William Hartnell) is sentenced to fifteen years in prison for killing his workmate, Fred Smith (played by John Slater), who was having an affair with his wife Doris (played by Chili Bouchier). A body was recovered from the Thames, although Masterick swore he saw him swimming away after he had fallen from a crane. Also, he claimed to have seen Smith on board a ship from the window of the police car as he was being taken into custody. But the jury didn't believe him and he was found guilty of murder. On his release from Dartmoor jail, Masterick remains convinced that Smith is still alive and vows to get revenge on him for refusing to come forward, thus allowing the world to believe he was dead and that he had died at his hand. Meanwhile, things are complicated because he was separated from his daughter, Jill (played by Petula Clark as a child and by Dinah Sheridan as an adult), who was adopted by newspaper editor Sullivan (played by Brefni O' Rorke). It was his paper running a campaign in sympathy for him that got his sentence reduced to long term imprisonment and saving him from the gallows. She has grown up unaware of her true identity and who her real father is...
A box office success at the time though, regrettably, it is rarely seen nowadays despite the fact that it was one of the earliest films to bring William Hartnell to the public's attention. Here he offers a strong performance as the everyday guy wrongly convicted of murder who is hardened by the ordeal of many years behind bars. His determination to get justice in his own way is driven by the fact that he has lost all faith in the legal establishment for causing him to lose fifteen years of his life. There is a strong emotional centre to the story in the form of Dinah Sheridan as his daughter who has no idea that the broken man who her journalist boyfriend (played by Jimmy Hanley) is following to get the next big story is really her father. There is a moving scene where Masterick is in Sullivan's office and Jill comes in pestering her foster dad for money to buy some new clothes in the way that all children do. We see how being separated from her has deprived him from being able to bond with her as his daughter. This was the feature film debut of director Montgomery Tully, who in the 1950's-60's would become one of Britain's most prolific makers of 'B'-pictures, and he directs his own fine screenplay with verve and pace aided by superb editing by Douglas Myers. It remains a taut and satisfying thriller and it builds to an ingenious and particularly effective climax where our man's revenge interrupts the self-satisfied and rather pompous dinner party being held to celebrate the long career of the barrister who got him sent down by his colleagues in the legal profession. Simply unmissable!
A box office success at the time though, regrettably, it is rarely seen nowadays despite the fact that it was one of the earliest films to bring William Hartnell to the public's attention. Here he offers a strong performance as the everyday guy wrongly convicted of murder who is hardened by the ordeal of many years behind bars. His determination to get justice in his own way is driven by the fact that he has lost all faith in the legal establishment for causing him to lose fifteen years of his life. There is a strong emotional centre to the story in the form of Dinah Sheridan as his daughter who has no idea that the broken man who her journalist boyfriend (played by Jimmy Hanley) is following to get the next big story is really her father. There is a moving scene where Masterick is in Sullivan's office and Jill comes in pestering her foster dad for money to buy some new clothes in the way that all children do. We see how being separated from her has deprived him from being able to bond with her as his daughter. This was the feature film debut of director Montgomery Tully, who in the 1950's-60's would become one of Britain's most prolific makers of 'B'-pictures, and he directs his own fine screenplay with verve and pace aided by superb editing by Douglas Myers. It remains a taut and satisfying thriller and it builds to an ingenious and particularly effective climax where our man's revenge interrupts the self-satisfied and rather pompous dinner party being held to celebrate the long career of the barrister who got him sent down by his colleagues in the legal profession. Simply unmissable!