Escape by Night

'Clash by Night' aka 'Escape by Night' (1964) is some terrifically thrilling, nerve-drilling, pulse-hijacking, hard-hitting Brit-crime celluloid from the 1960s! This boisterous, roustabout B-movie features a VERY unusually sinister performance by Peter Sallis as backward child killer Victor Lush! One of the best creepy-claustrophobic crims locked in a petrol-soaked barn on Bonfire night crime thrillers I've ever seen!! And, cor blimey, mayte! If it don' 'ave quite the most incendiary finale, guv'! And once again the ubiquitous Harry Fowler woz on spiv-tastic form! 'Escape by Night' gotta liver-lashing kick on it like a generously gelignited Gin-spritzer!!!! Strike a light, mayte!!! You'll be awlright wiv the high-octane 'Escape by Night'.

I think this might have done better had Monty Tully searched a bit harder for a more charismatic leading man. As it is, we are saddled with the rather unremarkable Terence Landon in the lead role. He is a member of a group who ambush a bus carrying one of their leader "Bart" (Tom Bowman), and proceed to lock the remaining passengers and the prison officers in a barn that they claim is soaked with paraffin. They will escape, leaving their captives inside and woe betides if they try to escape. Meantime, the police find the corpse of someone who ought to already be in jail and after a quick investigation realise that the bus didn't make to to it's destination. Now they have to trace it before a conflagration consumes everyone - it's Guy Fawkes' night! The plot tries to juggle the police activities with the increasingly melodramatic behaviour inside the barn (prisoners who have been harshly treated, hard done by, etc.), and in the muddle we end up with quite a lot of dialogue and not a lot of jeopardy as the story really does follow well trammelled lines. To be fair, the supporting cast of reliable British faces add some quirkiness and character to the thing, and Jennifer Jayne ("Nita") does all that is required of her (not very much) but this is still just a routine afternoon B-filler that passes seventy-five minutes but is a film that you will never remember.

I don't agree fully with the first reviewer of this film. Whilst I accept that all the clichés are indeed overworked and obvious as the previous reviewer points out , the film itself is entertaining in other ways. As a period piece of the 60's it is great to see that the British stalwarts are all there. Terence Longdon , the lead is o.k. It's good to see Harry Fowler in a typical wide eyed cockney performance. Also of interest is Alan Wheatley ( t.v's villainous Sheriff of Nottingham in the Richard Greene - Robin Hood series ) and lo and behold there is John Arnatt ( the deputy sheriff from the same series ). This time however they are on opposite sides of the law. I suppose it's especially interesting for me as for many years I was a friend of Alan Wheatley's. He was a fine educated man who enthralled me with his tales of filming and the many stars he worked with. I always enjoy his film performances.Then there is Jennifer Jayne ( from t.v's William Tell ), Peter Sallis, Robert Brown, all great supporting actors of British cinema. Taken as a low budget filler there is much enjoyment to be had from the film. O.k. so prisoner's bus is hi jacked and the passengers who all but one are criminals are left stranded in a barn covered with paraffin. One of the prisoners is a loony, another is a decent guy who may have committed fraud, another is a petty thief who has to discover the error of his ways, plus we have the lead's character who killed a guy attempting to rape his wife. So there you have it, all the plot lines are indeed cliché, but the acting from the stalwarts fleshes out the characters and time flies by. Give it a whirl and don't be too harsh.

CLASH BY NIGHT is a low rent British crime film. I initially thought it was a Butcher's Films production but it turns out to be from a rival studio. The plot is slightly reminiscent of SPLIT SECOND in that it deals with a gang of ruthless criminals who manage to escape from their transport and take a group hostage. Instead of a nuclear explosion, though, here they lock various prison guards, policemen, and other prisoners into a petrol-soaked barn with the threat of imminent immolation.

Part of the story follows a police investigation as they attempt to track down the culprits while another follows the melodrama taking place inside the barn. Given that this is an entirely low budget production, there isn't a great deal of suspense or tension here, but there are some fairly good performances from the familiar cast members. Terence Longdon (a familiar face from the Carry On films) is the leader of the gang, but my favourite performance came from Peter Sallis (LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE), playing a simple fellow with a passion for fire. What a performance, a total opposite to his later parts!

Recorded this from Talking Pictures channel. Interesting for the ensemble of familiar sixties actors. Harry Fowler (Army Game), Terence Longden (Garry Halliday), Jennifer Jayne (William Tell), Alan Wheatley (Robin Hood), Vanda Godsell (The Newcomers). It was an interesting enough story, but, Terence Longden and Harry Fowler apart, generally the acting was all a bit hammy. Interesting that an integral part of the plot was not actually shown on screen.