Tomorrow at Ten

When I watch a film like TOMORROW AT TEN, I'm a bit bemused because I can't understand why it's not better known. This is a cracking little thriller, one of the best of its era, and it really should be talked about today by film fans instead of being forgotten by all but the most dedicated viewers of the era. It's a pity that B-movie thrillers like this one are so little known as this sort of film more than holds its own against modern fare.

There's no padding or fat in this story which gets going from the outset. A delightfully mannered Robert Shaw (on the cusp of stardom in FROM Russia WITH LOVE, although TOMORROW AT TEN was made in 1962 and not released until 1965) plays a kidnapper who abducts the son of a rich businessman and locks him in a room with a bomb hidden inside a Golliwog. The boy's father and a local detective inspector must negotiate before the bomb explodes - 'tomorrow at ten'.

It's a great concept and the experienced director Lance Comfort makes a fine job of it. There's suspense in spades here, alongside plot twists you won't see coming and a delightfully tense race-against-the-clock (literally!) climax. The supporting cast includes notable roles for Kenneth Cope, Alec Clunes (father of Martin), Harry Fowler, William Hartnell, and Renee Houston. John Gregson's long-suffering detective inspector is one of the most sympathetic of his career.

A pre-stardom Robert Shaw kidnaps a rich kid and locks him in a room with a golliwog in which he has stitched a time bomb that is due to go off at the titular time. He's suitably creepy in a film that starts out strongly but which gets bogged down in some lengthy moral/ethical philosophising despite some unexpected plot twists. A visibly ageing John Gregson huffs and puffs as the uncompromising cop tasked with finding the kid.

A surprisingly engaging feature sees John Gregson as a detective ("Insp. Parnell") brought into investigate the kidnap of the son of the wealthy "Chester" (Alec Clunes). Interestingly the kidnapper "Marlow" (Robert Shaw) has locked the child into an attic room in an unknown London address then gone to the man's home to demand the ransom in person - so we know all the characters from the start. Midway through, he there is an altercation and suffice to say the policeman has to try and track down the child from scratch. It's quite suspenseful, and the tight-knit cast keep the story moving well with quite a degree of jeopardy building, too.

George Marlow (Robert Shaw) devises what he thinks is the perfect kidnapping. He buys a doll and places a time bomb inside of it. He then picks a day when a chauffeur who usually takes the son of a rich man to school is ill, substitutes for him, and takes the boy to a large house that he has rented. He then locks the boy in an upper story room in the house with the doll-bomb in the same room. He goes to the rich man and says he wants fifty thousand pounds or else the bomb will go off and kill his son the next day at 10AM . Marlow says he plans to get on an international flight with the money and when he arrives at the destination he will call the rich man and tell him where the boy is so he can be rescued in time.

Not knowing anything but that the boy has been kidnapped, the nanny calls the police. Detective Inspector Parnell (John Gregson) arrives and tells Marlow he is not going anywhere, bomb or no bomb. Parnell has a long success of talking to suspects until they give something away, and he has almost 24 hours to do that here. In the meantime, Parnell is being opposed by the boy's father who even offers Parnell fifty thousand pounds to let the kidnapper go and by his own police commissioner who is a close friend of the rich man. And there are a couple of ironic plot twists along the way. I don't want to say any more than that.

This film could have gotten claustrophobic in a hurry if it was just Shaw and Gregson alone in a room verbally sparring for the length of the film, and I will tell you there is much more to it than that.

Suspenseful thriller in which Robert Shaw gets the lion's share as a kidnapper of a wealthy man's only son.The story almost entirely focuses on the villain and (it's rare ) tries to explain the reason why he did it .It's not only a matter of money as the viewer little by little discovers .The things themselves play a prominent part ,the ticking of the clocks or a jumping jack .The kidnapper is at hand ,under the police's eye ,like in more modern thrillers such as "oxygen" ;and of course there is a quarrel between the scared father and the police .The whole film is a race against the clock ,for the boy is in a house with a time bomb.