Nowhere to Go *** (1958, George Nader, Bernard Lee, Maggie Smith) – Classic Movie Review 13,391

Nowhere to Go (1958, George Nader, Bernard Lee, Maggie Smith).

The 1958 British Ealing Studios crime thriller film Nowhere to Go stars George Nader as a confidence trickster and Maggie Smith in her first credited role, as a disillusioned débutante.

Director Seth Holt’s 1958 British crime thriller film Nowhere to Go is based on the novel by Donald MacKenzie, and stars George Nader, Bernard Lee, Maggie Smith, Harry H Corbett and Bessie Love.

American actor George Nader stars in this tense, brisk and quite gripping Fifties British Ealing Studios thriller as Paul Gregory, a Canadian thief and confidence trickster operating in London, forced on the run after he accidentally kills double-crossing crook accomplice Victor Sloane (Bernard Lee).

The film starts with Lee helping Nader’s break from jail, where he was serving a 10-year term for relieving a rich Canadian woman (Bessie Love) of her coins collection.

A young Maggie Smith (aged 24), then under contract to Ealing Studios, impresses as Bridget Howard, the socialite who shelters Nader, but whom he wrongly suspects has betrayed him. Bridget is a disillusioned ex-débutante and a chief constable’s niece.

It is stylishly directed by long-time Ealing Studios film editor Holt in his directorial debut, promoted by fatherly studio head Michael Balcon, with startling photography by Paul Beeson and jazz score by Dizzy Reece that add extra quality.

It is written by English theatre critic and writer Kenneth Tynan and Seth Holt, based on the 1956 novel by Donald MacKenzie, a former prisoner. Tynan worked at Ealing for two years but this is his only script there to be filmed. Holt said: ‘I did the action bits and he did the dialogue.’

It was made at MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood as Ealing Studios had moved to the Borehamwood after selling its studio base in 1955.

MGM trimmed the film by a quarter of an hour to 89 minutes and released it in the UK on the bottom half of a double bill with Torpedo Run (1958). They premiered together in the West End on 4 December 1958 at Fox’s Rialto Theatre and went on UK general release on the ABC circuit from 11 January 1959.

The full-length version of was released on DVD in January 2013.

Holt said: ‘I was very anxious to make something rather stylish. But in the end Michael Balcon ratted on me slightly by agreeing with MGM to cut out a quarter of an hour of the film. They were good sequences that went but I must confess you don’t have to have it.’

The film earned $145,000 in North America and $450,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $242,000. Holt said: ‘I was out on my ear and didn’t get any work at all for a long time. Nowhere to Go dropped like a stone.’ Hammer Films rescued him and hired him for Taste of Fear (1961).

The writing was on the wall for Ealing Studios, whose last film was The Siege of Pinchgut (1959), directed by Harry Watt who was originally scheduled to direct Nowhere to Go.

Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (28 December 1934 – 27 September 2024)

It is Smith’s second film, after an uncredited role as Party Guest in Child in the House. With Ealing closing down, Maggie Smith didn’t film again till Go to Blazes (1962). She became part of Laurence Olivier’s new National Theatre Company soon after it was formed at The Old Vic theatre in London in 1962. And in 1963, Ken Tynan was appointed the new National Theatre Company’s literary manager.

The cast

The cast are George Nader as Paul Gregory, Maggie Smith as Bridget Howard, Bernard Lee as Victor Sloane, alias Lee Henderson, Geoffrey Keen as Inspector Scott, Bessie Love as Harriet P Jefferson, Harry H Corbett as Sullivan, Andrée Melly as Rosa, Irish nightclub waitress, Harry Locke as George Bendel, Howard Marion-Crawford as club owner Mack Cameron, Arthur Howard as First Mr Dodds, John Welsh as Second Mr Dodds, Noel Howlett as Uncle Tom Howard, Christopher Hunter as child, Lionel Jeffries as shopkeeper, Glyn Houston as box office clerk, Lily Kann as Anna Berg, Maggie Rennie as Mary, Charles Price as tractor driver John Turner as policeman Oliver Johnston as vault official Mr Hopkins, Beckett Bould as gamekeeper, and Lane Meddick as Welsh garageman.

George Garfield Nader, Jr (October 19, 1921 – February 4, 2002)

George Nader lived with his life partner Mark Miller (November 22, 1926 – June 9, 2015), whom he met in 1947 while they were acting in a play.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,391

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