Escape from Broadmoor

Director John Gilling packed quite a bit into his life - heading for Hollywood in his teens he tried prize fighting, acting, stage managing etc before returning to Britain in 1933 where he found work at Gainsborough Studios. After the war he teamed up with producer Harry Reynolds and began to make films that were extended shorts (35-45 minutes) and the first "Escape From Broadmoor" was not only notable for John Le Mesurier's debut, it had extensive location shooting. This was to be the first in a series of "psychic mysteries" that the writer/director Gilling hoped would interest viewers.

The police have reopened the Pendacost case, a criminal has escaped from Broadmoor Insane Asylum and the police hope he will revisit the house he tried to rob ten years before. He is holed up in a deserted house with a petty crim, Jenkins, who is bringing him supplies, not realising the identity of the escapee but more than keen when the older man talks of a big time robbery plan. The police have already staked out the house but the owner is having premonitions that someone is trying to send him a message. Slinky slatted shadows and a wandering cat conjures up the supernatural.

Interesting to see kindly John Le Mesurier of "Dad's Army" fame as an unpredictable psychopath - for his first movie he does alright.