Escape by Night

Bonar Colleano is a once-good reporter diving into a bottle. While the other reporters are talking about the forthcoming arrest of crime boss Sidney James (this being a dramatic role, Sid uses his full name and an Italian accent). Announcing they're looking for news while he makes it, Colleano writes a story about James eluding the police, sends it to his editor and then calls James to warn him. He then badgers James' girl friend, Simone Silva, into telling him where the man is, goes there, and spends the rest of the movie as James' prisoner, sending out news stories through child actor Ted Ray.

John Gilling has written a movie that depends on the characters, and the writing does not have much depth to it, but under his directors the actors rise to the occasion and inhabit the roles far outside their usual casting. James is brutal and thuggish and paranoid; Colleano is brash and uncaring, broken. It's a reminder that although performers like James, a star because of the image he projected in seemingly hundreds of CARRY ON films and other comedies, was an actor, and eager to take on roles that would challenge him. Having the dirtiest laugh in show business might be his bread and butter, but it was nice to do something way out of the ordinary.