Nowhere to Go

When the film begins, Paul Gregory (George Nader) escapes from prison. Soon after, you see a flashback to learn what brought him to prison. It seems that he recently came from the US to the UK and expected to get a light sentence when he steals a coin collection. He then expects to be able to escape, retreive the stolen collection and beat it out of the country. He definitely is a cool character....and you wonder if he is quite as clever as he thought he was when his plan starts to unravel!

George Nader was a handsome actor who left the US in the late 1950s to make films in Europe, such as the Jerry Cotton spy films. This is because he was outed in the press in the States and felt he had more options for work in Europe...which he apparently did. Here he is quite good in the lead...one of his few leading roles of this period in his career.

This is an interesting example of British film noir. While it lacks the cool camera angles of the best of the noir, its amoral sensibilities and coldness of the main character are classic noir all the way. Well worth seeing and it's a quiet, brooding sort of film.

I almost skipped this film -- it was a late night offering on TCM -- but I'm so glad I taped it. Like most film noir, the story never seems to go in the direction you expect; its charm lies in this unpredictability. Unlike most film noir, however, Nowhere To Go seems both authentic and believable. In the end, Paul Gregory's self-assured cockiness is undone by surprise, deceit and suspicion.

My initial interest was to watch Maggie Smith's first credited screen role but was completely drawn in by all of the principal characters. Those more accustomed to seeing Smith in her more sophisticated roles from the 1970s onwards, will be pleasantly surprised by her ability to comfortably inhabit the role of a working class girl.

I had never seen George Nader in anything before. Too bad he never achieved the degree of greatness his talent and good looks seemed to promise. Although American born, I think he would have played a convincing James Bond.

Both Bessie Love and Bernard Lee provide strong supporting roles.

Sort of reminded me of an earlier noir about a morally challenged Yank adrift in postwar Britain, "Night And The City". Not quite as good, though. A bit too much time is spent on the prison escape and the con that the morally challenged American is running rather than on the good stuff, namely the serial betrayals Paul Gregory experiences from various false friends and the consequent sense of entrapment that he feels, a mood that mirrors the film's bleak title and which all great noirs must have in abundance, in my opinion.

Still, it's fun to see Maggie Smith, in her first movie, effectively playing a sexy yet vulnerable gal. And George Nader, who should have had a bigger career (homophobia, perhaps?), is quite good as a doomed man on the run. I also liked director Seth Holt's handling of tone, action and, with exception of act one, pacing. Once we emerge from the long back story, the film finds its footing and moves at a good clip. Give it a B.

PS...Considering that the screenplay was co written by one of England's more pompous theatre critics, it's surprisingly unpretentious.

I watched TCM's 87-minute broadcast of this film from June 2017. What a find! Script-wise, it continually zigs when the viewer expects it to zag. The cinematography is a mix of elements to love -- noir shadings, in-depth focus, unusual but always pertinent camera angles. And I suppose that in the context of films like Scream of Fear and The Nanny, the sober and somewhat cynical auteur side of Seth Holt comes through. George Nader pretty much carries the acting chores and does fine at it. It's a shame he never seemed to break through to the big time. I remember him, of course, in Robot Monster, also in a TV show called Man and the Challenge. Maggie Smith, in her film debut, is anything but a sexy ingenue. Her part is scripted to carry her character in an entirely opposite direction; her large eyes and muted attractiveness do add to the effectiveness of her performance. An uncut, Region 2 DVD adding 13 minutes to the film is available through Amazon UK. I would imagine that the extra footage serves to amplify the evolution of Nader's character -- this, not the suspense (though it is suspenseful), struck me as the focus of this unjustly neglected film. Give it a try!

George Nader had a penchant for difficult roles, and here he is in a difficult spot indeed, as everything goes wrong for him. He makes a great theft of £55.000 by tricking an old lady, he puts the money in a bank vault and loses the key, he is sentenced to prison for his crime expecting five years and gets ten, he escapes, and all his former accomplices betray him, one after the other. Bernard Lee is interested in helping him only because of the money, and by accident he is killed and George charged with murder, so he is a hunted man with nowhere to go, and only Maggie Smith is decent enough to help him. It is lovely to see her so young and fresh in one of her earliest films - she would later in the 60s make Desdemona against Laurence Olivier. Of course, this bleak and sordid fugitive story could only end in one way, and it does. Maggie Smith gets out of it unharmed, while the film is replenished with losers. It's a dark noir in black and white with no sunshine in it, and George Nader is working hard to get through it. The legendary Ealing studios could come out with more cheerful pictures.