Port of Escape ** (1956, Googie Withers, John McCallum, Bill Kerr, Joan Hickson) – Classic Movie Review 13,026

The conscientious 1956 British thriller film Port of Escape stars wife and husband team Googie Withers and John McCallum, along with Bill Kerr as a psychotic sailor, in a killer at large tale.

Director Tony Young’s conscientious 1956 British thriller film Port of Escape stars Googie Withers, John McCallum, Bill Kerr and Joan Hickson. It is written by Tony Young and Barbara S Harper, based on Harper’s short story Safe Harbour.

John McCallum and Bill Kerr play Australian sailor Mitchell Gillis and American sailor Dinty Missouri who dock in London. They are looking for a good time but get involved in a fight outside a dockside pub when one of them fatally stabs a man. They go on the run and hide on a moored boat, taking the three women on board hostage.

Port of Escape is a watchable old British film, though more of a melodrama than a thriller, and nothing great or particularly special, with tension and suspense all too sparse. Director Tony Young concentrates on building doomy atmosphere instead, in the manner of French films of the late Thirties and early Forties. Thrill seekers may find that second best here.

But nevertheless a decent story, good, quite strong performances, and the London Docklands location cinematography lead the way to a fairly successful film experience, though the studio work is creaky. The compelling Withers and McCallum impress with their well-practised easy authority, Kerr is fine despite a difficult role and not exactly ideal casting (his psychotic character has amnesia and gives way to explosions of anger), while Joan Hickson, Hugh Pryse and Alexander Gauge are notable in support, all rewarded with enough to do.

Australian actor John McCallum returned to Britain after the war and starred in The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947) and It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) with Googie Withers, whom he married in 1948.

Fellow Australian actor Bill Kerr (10 June 1922 – 28 August 2014) played the Australian lodger in the BBC radio comedy series Hancock’s Half Hour from 1954 to 1959. He appeared in many British films, such as The Dam Busters (1955) and The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963) and then later in 1979 returned to Australia for a second career as a character actor..

Hugh Pryse (1910–1955).

Hugh Pryse died on 11 August 1955, aged 44, nine months before the film was released.

Alexander Gauge as Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1959.

British character actor Alexander Gauge (29 July 1914 – 28 August 1960) makes a good job of playing as Inspector Levins. He played coppers a couple of times successfully but usually played villains in British films. He was equally successful with comedy, and is best known as Friar Tuck in TV’s The Adventures of Robin Hood from 1955 to 1959.  He died aged 46 in Woking, Surrey, in 1960 from an overdose.

The cast are Googie Withers as Anne Stirling, John McCallum as Mitchell Gillis, Bill Kerr as Dinty Missouri, Joan Hickson as Rosalie Watchett, Wendy Danielli as Daphne Stirling, Hugh Pryse as Skinner, Alexander Gauge as Inspector Levins, Ingeborg von Kusserow as Lucy, Ewan Roberts as Sergeant Rutherford, Basil Dignam as Det Sgt Crawford, and George Rose as publican.

Port of Escape is directed by Tony Young, runs 76 minutes, is made by Wellington Films, is distributed by Renown Pictures Corporation (UK),  is written by Tony Young, Barbara S Harper and Abby Mann (additional scenes), based on Harper’s short story Safe Harbour, is shot in black and white by Phil Grindrod, is produced by Lance Comfort, and is scored by Bretton Byrd.

Release date: May 1956 (UK).

The films of Tony Young: Penny Points to Paradise (1951), My Death Is a Mockery (1952), Hands of Destiny (1954), Port of Escape (1956), The Eternal Question (1956), Them Nice Americans (1958), Hidden Homicide (1959), The Runaway (1963), and Delayed Flight (1964).

Penny Points to Paradise stars Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers of The Goon Show in their feature film debut. Young produced The Telegoons for BBC Television in 1963–64.

Old joke: ‘What do you do when your googie withers?’

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,026

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