Life in Danger

Not often seen going by the very low number of reviews so far but it's well worth watching. Derrin Nesbit always puts in a great performance and has been under appreciated for decades. Very well filmed and acted with no one going over the top, even the younger actors and actresses were very good. This could have gone a number of ways at the end and some of the possible alternatives would have been acceptable.

LIFE IN DANGER is a low budget British crime drama about a child murderer who busts out of an asylum and is at large in the local community. While the police and authorities begin a slow and largely ineffectual investigation, the local gun-toting landowners decide to take the law into their own hands and hunt for the escapee themselves.

The story boasts an excellent performance from a youthful Derren Nesbitt as the lead character, who hides out in a barn for much of the running time. Nesbitt has always exuded an edgy and dangerous persona and never more so than here. The rest of the cast aren't quite as memorable, but the writers use the story template to explore some interesting topics: trial and retribution; psychological disturbance; the mindset of a murderer; and vigilantism. It's fairly suspenseful stuff, enlivened by a great edge-of-the-seat climax.

A terse, compelling rural drama, probably inspired by the Straffen case that shocked Britain a few years earlier; plus forties dramas about small-town xenophobia like 'The Ox-Bow Incident' and 'Panique' (Howard Marion Crawford as Major Peters strongly recalling Harry Shannon as Major Tetley in the former).

A young Derren Nesbitt demonstrates that once long ago he could touchingly play waifs as well as bullies.

Recorded from Talking Pictures TV, 2025.

Very low budget B&W B movie from 1959 with an interesting storyline and a finely crafted conclusion.

Derren Nesbitt is very good as the lead character, acting somewhat against the type of dark thug he made his own during the 1960s and beyond.

All the cast do ok apart from Carmel McSharry who was completely over the top.

If ever there was an actress who was type cast it is her sour faced, fag hanging from lips persona who appeared in many features during the next 20 years.

Hazel looked much older than 17 (she was actually 19), especially when she first appeared in a school blazer.

The conclusion was heading in a nasty direction and was extremely well played out.

At an institute for the criminally insane. The Governor is deciding whether to sound the alarm that a potentially dangerous inmate has escaped.

While he decides, the clock is ticking down. The inmate is getting further away making it harder for the police to catch him quickly.

Derren Nesbitt is the rough looking casual labourer who has come to a small village looking for work. He has a tattoo on his hand.

The stranger has no money until a woman at a bus stop gives him a few coins. The local pub does not serve him as he looks like a vagrant.

Hazel is a young woman who takes pity on the stranger. She directs him to a barn where he could rest. Later Hazel joins him with her brother.

Back at the village, once news emerges of the escaped inmate.

Major Peters does not want to leave matter to the police. He incites the villagers to become vigilantes and take the law into their own hands.

Realising that Hazel might be with a dangerous convict. They surround the barn, the escaped inmate has a tattoo on his hand.

Life In Danger is a low budget B movie. An escaped convict in a barn with some kids, that would be the more famous Whistle Down the Wind with Alan Bates which came out in 1961.

This movie is a contrived morality tale weighed down by its low budget somewhat.

The screenplay by Malcolm Hulke and Eric Paice was laboured, even the twist at the end looked out of place.