The Break (1962) User Reviews

Sterling work in a rural Brit crime flick

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 14 September 2016]

THE BREAK is a typical British crime picture which effortlessly delivers the goods in a low budget way. It's one of those films where a bunch of characters are holed up in an isolated location and each have their own motivations for being there, although this time around it's a grubby farmhouse B&B which gives the film a kind of muddy, down to earth charm: a story of barns and mud-splattered vehicles, if you will.

Presiding over things is William Lucas, a violent escaped criminal in the great British B-movie tradition. Lucas plays a truly sinister and ruthless character who dominates the proceedings quite considerably. Writer hero Tony Britton is a bore by comparison, but there are some finely-judged supporting performances here from the likes of Robert Urquhart and Edwin Richfield as a farm worker.

Hard-working director Lance Comfort gets every penny of his budget up on the screen and there are no slow spots or glaring errors that stand out. The female characters have more importance to the storyline than usual and there are some exciting set-pieces including a chase through the countryside that reminded me of a scene in THE WALKING DEAD involving the Governor; a film to rival the big boys at times, then.

Effective thriller overcomes plot contrivances

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 25 February 2016]

Let's put it this way you will have seen this film and variants many times.It is however effectively handled by Lance Comfort.Jacko manages to escape from a train,kill the guard and ramshackle himself without too much difficulty.He then manages to get to a hotel near Newton Abbott's where his gang seem to comprise the staff whilst indulging in a lifeline of stealing whiskey.One of the guests is a failed writer,whose wife wants to divorce him.Robert Urquhart plays a seedy private eye trying to get evidence for the wife's divorce.He gets too nosey and is killed by Jacko,who rather losses control and kills a gang member.Eventually Jacko gets his just deserts.

Sometimes You Get 'Em, And Sometime Not

[boblipton · 6/10 · 22 January 2023]

William Lucas kills the cop taking him to prison and heads to a hotel on the moors. From there, Eddie Byrne has arranged to smuggle Lucas and his sister, Christina Gregg, to Argentina. However, when author Tony Britton and a private detective show up, the plans begin to unravel.

Like many a script by Pip & Jane Baker, plot is what happens when an ill assortment of peoples' plans conflict, and this is a well written and decently executed example of that. Other performers include Robert Urquhart, Sonia Dresdel, and Gene Anderson. While Lance Comfort's direction is no more than competent, it's certainly no less, and the occasional big shot by DP Basil Emmot adds some nice punctuation to the pacing of the movie.

Great British Thriller

[Bernard-Dunne · 13 August 2011]

Unlike what the other reviewer said Jacko Thomas doesn't make his escape from Dartmoor prison, he doesn't even get there. It's starts with Jacko Thomas been escorted by two plainclothes police officers (by train) to Dartmoor prison. he starts fighting them and jumps off of the speeding train with one of them. This one he later kills. He is then transported by a boat and a Landrover to the 'Tredgar's Farm Guesthouse' in the middle of nowhere. The next day three other guests arrive, the writer Greg Parker, Joseph Parker (who is played by Robert Urguhart, in almost the same way as he played Monckton in the 'Danger Man' episode 'Man With The Foot'), the last visitor is Jacko's beautiful sister Sue who has brought his stolen money. Fast paced and excellent direction from Lance Comfort. Lots of Twists and turns in the plot including Pearson 'phoning someone to tell them where Jacko is or does he mean Parker? and with Jacko having an affair with Tredgar's wife. Pretty good plot wise. Will he make his escape or not?

A remote hotel, and three guests with different reasons for being there...

[DPMay · 8/10 · 6 July 2020]

It's often the case that 'B' pictures from the 1940s, 50s 60s make for very unsatisfying viewing nowadays but occasionally some titles pop up which are true gems and I'd certainly put The Break into that latter category.

Although its core premise of all-round decent guy chancing upon a violent, escaped prisoner isn't especially exceptional, this 77min b&w film finds all of its contributors at the top of their game and rises comfortably above the average fare.

As good as the isolated Dartmoor location and Brian Fahey's memorable musical score are, the real delight of this piece is the way that all of the multi-dimensional characters link in with one another, especially as they are portrayed by an excellent group of actors whose expressive faces could tell a story all on their own. William Lucas is the homicidal villain of the piece, Jacko Thomas, completely selfish and yet devoted to his sister; Tony Britton is an unlikely yet effective choice as the action hero, Greg Parker, who goes from being suicidal to fighting for his very life; Robert Urquhart is Mr Pearson, the other guest in the remote hotel who is not quite everything he seems; Eddie Byrne is Tredgar, proprietor of the hotel who is running a second, more secretive business; Gene Anderson is Tredgar's wife, whose diminished opinion of him has eroded her patience - and her loyalty; then there are Moses and Sarah, God-fearing siblings who are not wholly without sin. The plot unfolds nicely with some clever twists and a ramping up of the action as Parker becomes increasingly mired in a life-threatening situation, cut off from outside help. But can he possibly find help from among those at the hotel?

What Tarantino Couldn't Do The Brits Did Long Before

[TheFearmakers · 9/10 · 7 September 2020]

The same exact year British model turned actress Christina Gregg played a fifteen-year-old girl being seduced by a man on a payphone in DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN, she was the twenty-something sister of a cutthroat convict who made THE BREAK from a fast-moving train...

Then kills a guard and like the handful of eclectic characters, all wind up... as Quentin Tarantino attempted in HATEFUL EIGHT inspired by John Carpenter's classic THE THING... in the same limited space, here a rural hotel (looking more like a quaint two-story B&B) -- all with not only different personalities and perspectives but purpose and motivation...

Like most of these British thrillers, the leading man is a middle-aged, sophisticated gentlemen type: a famous author with writer's block and, on the upside he quickly yet slowly finds kinship with the gorgeous Christina Gregg but he's also being surreptitiously eyed by the most intriguing and perhaps crooked person onboard in CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN Peter Cushing sidekick Robert Urquhart as a wily-charming gumshoe insurance investigator...

So far we've spoiled plenty just by describing certain characters as THE BREAK is totally character and personality driven as that distinguished author, played by Tony Britton, has the strong and able aura of Humphrey Bogart when he'd become a solid cinematic hero while the "titular" escapee/Christina Gregg's brother, William Lucas... with the deliciously tough name of Jocko... is like Bogie in his mean and nasty antagonist-of-Cagney years...

Thus there's pretty much everything going on- - the only mistake is getting rid of one particular mug far too soon while making too big a deal about random and strategic bouts of violence in a movie that should act as tough as it looks, and feels...

Even future STAR WARS general Eddie Byrne, as the shady middleman who'd set up the rudimentary escape, the essential cash and the hidden locale for brother and sister to easily ditch their orphaned/abused past to freedom, loses his experienced cool after our anti-hero turned straight-out villain loses even the trust/faith of little sis -- the latter preferring a safe future to a fierce, edgy one...

As does the film itself - the first half exceeding the second - yet is still pretty terrific in its intentionally claustrophobic setting with dialogue that's never stagey and even an 11th hour outdoors action sequence in a nearby salt mine, where a truck chase is filmed by veteran thriller-auteur Lance Comfort, flowing as smooth as any American action flick years later...

For, like all British New Wave flicks, the acting (including a diamond-in-the-rough religious zealot named Moses) is both feisty and laidback, acute, natural... what the Yanks would catch onto in the following decade as the Brits 1960's was our 1970's.

A minor but highly effective little suspenser from b-pic veteran Lance Comfort.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 21 December 2015]

A convicted armed robber, Jacko Thomas (William Lucus), jumps from a speeding train and kills his police escort. At a lonely Dartmoor hotel, the proprietor Tredegar (Eddie Byrne) is arranging an escape route for Jacko who plans to take the proceeds of a robbery and his sister, Sue (Christina Gregg),to begin a new life in Argentina. But, things are complicated when famed novelist, Greg Parker (Tony Britten), and private eye, Pearson (Robert Urqhart), check in at the hotel. When Jacko learns about Pearson, he kills him in a fit of panic but, in actual fact, he was collecting evidence for divorce proceedings on behalf of Parker's wife who ditched him after his last book flopped. Meanwhile, the novelist has been striking up a friendship with Sue. Another murder occurs and Parker narrowly avoids falling victim to Jacko himself. Parker must find away of alerting the police to the happenings at the hotel and stop Jacko escaping with Sue and the loot. But, can Parker convince Sue of her beloved brother's homicidal tendencies?

A minor but highly effective little suspenser from director Lance Comfort who,during the 1950's and early 60's, became a man in demand and made scores of second features after his "A" feature career never really got off the ground. These ranged from the downright poor to the average and a handful of exceptional gems that showed that noteworthy efforts did sometimes come from this oft-maligned corner of British filmmaking. Comfort succeeds in creating much in the way of suspense and tension here and the attractive setting of lonely Dartmoor enhances the feeling of claustrophobia heightened by some nice sets and Basil Emmott's (another b-pic veteran)excellent b/w photography. Good performances too - William Lucas is suitably thuggish and frightening in the role of the killer and Christina Gregg is suitably naive and vulnerable in the role of his sister, Sue, who has no idea throughout about her brother being a cold blooded killer. Gregg was highly effective in another of Lance Comfort's better films - Rag Doll - in which she plays a teenage runaway who falls in love with a pop singing Soho criminal played By Jess Conrad. Highly recommended viewing. There are many familiar faces from British film and television such as Eddie Byrne (The Mummy, Island Of Terror), Robert Urqhart (The Curse Of Frankenstein)and Edwin Richfield who showed up in many episodes of cult British TV shows of the era including The Avengers.

A Winter's Tale

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 16 February 2021]

Two years after playing the "waif-in-peril" in the title role of 'Rag Doll', big-haired, button-eyed Christina Gregg - her fur collar pulled up against the cold - was still on the run under the guidance of director Lance Comfort in this raw, hard-edged retread of 'The Petrified Forest' with William Lucas in the Bogart role and Tony Britton as Leslie Howard (set like the aftermath of the following summer's Great Train Robbery in a deserted farm).

Cameraman Basil Emmott does a magnificent job both of the night-for-night scenes and the wintry daytime location work shot on Woking Common. And the final shot is a beaut!

Action packed 71 minutes.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 28 June 2009]

What a wonderful little British thriller. A real crime movie, fast paced, a good cast of actors. Powerful performances. An effective score too. It begins with the sequence of an escape from Dartmoor prison, in the British country side, in the middle of nowhere. The escapists are of course helped by a bunch of hoods. And every one get hidden in a sort of cottage. There is a very exciting chase, in the country side, between a running man and a Land Rover, in the mud.

We already know the actors. I don't remember their names, but I saw them in lots of films from this era. Lance Comfort has not made so many movies, but they are all efficient.