The Hideout

Our heroes lost me early on when continually referring to their housemaid as "Potter".

Even in mortal danger one must know one's place.

There wasn't a lot of sympathy for the children's chauffeur either.

Post war Britain was bliss in 1948.

Bar that not the worst.

A story played out many times before but well acted by all including Howard Keel.

Valerie Hobson plays Valerie Hobson as usual and as always is the standout.

A couple with marriage problems (fortunately as it turns out) come across an accident involving three dangerous escapees, well one in any case.

As in many post war British films a Hollywood star was used and Keel, appearing at the time, in the WestEnd version of "Oklahoma" holds his own in the acting department.

Everyone else is equally as solid.

Watch out for the recording played late in the piece.

Quite a thoughtful ending.

Pity about Potter.

6/10.

Have always gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this sort of film, being someone who loves films with tension and suspense and mystery/crime driven stories. 'The Small Voice' was most notable hearing of it through family friends, fellow classic/golden age film fans, for seeing Howard Keel in his film debut. In a role very different from the musical/hunky roles he specialised and was typically typecast in later on, so it was interesting to see how he would fare.

'The Small Voice' to me was well executed and more than served its main objectives well. It is not quite a great film and there was room for it to be even better than it turned out. Flaws though are few and are not that major, and while the tension and suspense may not be fever pitch exactly 'The Small Voice' is far from devoid of it. Keel was one of my main reasons for seeing the film in the first place and he is also one of the main reasons for why it works.

It is a bit of a slow starter. The early portions are a little slow and take a little too long to set up the story.

Also found the film at times more talk-heavy than it needed to be, when parts could have benefitted from more show and less tell.

For all those personal nit-picks, 'The Small Voice' does so much right. James Donald and Valerie Hobson successfully allow the viewer to root for their characters, they are in a dire situation and they play the roles appealingly that it is not hard to root for them to get out of it. Michael Balfour steals all his scenes and David Greene suitably unsettles. Best of all is Keel in a most credible debut, here credited by his actual real name Harold Keel, he is imposing and poses a genuine threat. One doesn't want to mess with him, as said very against type but effectively so (seeing a more menacing side to such a likeable performer was one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises of all my recent film viewings). The film is slickly directed.

Visually 'The Small Voice' is full of atmosphere, in a way that's both beautiful and eerie. Something present also in the not too obvious scoring. While the script and story are not always perfect, they are solidly done on the whole. The script is thought-provoking and generally tight. The story when it gets going is very compelling with enough urgency and tension to satisfy, helped largely by that Keel is so good.

Summing up, very worthwhile and well executed. 7/10

A perennial situation that dates back at least as far as 'The Petrified Forest' and culminated in the section in 'A Clockwork Orange' when Alex and his droogs invade the home of a writer with an attractive wife to whom they proceed to help themselves (itself based on an incident during the wartime blackout in 1944 when Anthony Burgess's own wife was beaten and raped by three GI deserters). Although based on a novel originally published in 1940 and here updated to the postwar crime wave, by the time Burgess wrote his own novel a further ten years later he was thinking of teddy boys.

The fellow who makes his film debut as the chief hood was an American billed as 'Harold Keel' who had recently made a name for himself on the West End stage. He shows promise.

From 1948, A Small Voice or Hideout is a 1948 British film, directed by Fergus McDonell.

A playwright, Murray Byrne (James Donald) and wife Eleanor (Valerie Hobson) stop en route home to help two men (Howard Keel billed as Harold and David Greene) who had been in a car accident.

It turns out that they have escaped from prison. Once at the couple's home, they hold them hostage. One returns to the accident and brings back a third man and two children who were in the other car with a dead chauffeur.

The little boy develops meningitis. Desperate to get a doctor for him, Eleanor tries sneaking out of the house to get to a phone box, since the crooks have disconnected the phone, but Boke (Keel) catches her.

Somewhat suspenseful, with Keel and Hobson having the best roles. The housekeeper (Joan Young) is a scream - at one point trying to distract Boke while Eleanor attempts to leave, she proclaims Bible passages. He shoves her into a room and closes the door, but she opens it and continues proclaiming.

Hobson was a huge star in England, married to John Profumo of the Profumo-Christine Keeler scandal that rocked Britain. The American Keel enjoyed a career on Broadway in musicals as well as films and TV, notably as a regular on Dallas.

Predictable.

I've just see this worthy film on Talking Pictures, Channel 81- and there appears to be a two-part version on YouTube. (Incidentally, IMDB puts the film's length at 67 minutes, but the YouTube offering runs to some 82 minutes, which is confirmed by other listings.)

At first the film was a bit talky and slow, but soon picked up and flowed along reasonably well. Like another IMBD reviewer, I was puzzled about how the three bad guys got guns (and how they'd got out of Dartmoor Prison). As to their getting different number plates, I'd assumed they were stolen from another vehicle.

Low budget, small cast, and most of the film took place inside the married couple's house. Harold/Howard Keel portrayed a chilling character, in contrast to the cheerful ones he often played as his career developed. Michael Balfour all but stole some scenes, playing to type as a criminal of limited intelligence. And Michael Hordern has a few lines to say on his way to become a recognizable face in so many British films.