They Can't Hang Me

This film would appear to be inspired,if that is the word,by the defection of Burgess and MacLean to the Russians in the 1950s.Terence Morgan plays a special branch officer who has a butler,the inimitable Reginald Beckwith.He also is lumbered by having Yolande Donlan as his girl friend by virtue of the fact that she was married to the director Val Guest.The best part of the film is the opening two minutes,after that it rather drags.To my mind there is a basic flaw.Why would the murderer wait till he was sitting in the condemned cell before trying to make a deal.This makes no sense whatsoever.It is not till near the end that we learn who is the escaping secret agent.However the climax is very disappointing.

Civil Servant Andre Morrell is to hang for uncivilly strangling a prostitute. He tells "Special Services" Inspector Terence Morgan that he knows the identity of a top spy who is about to smuggle a major secret out of the country, and will trade the information for commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment.

This start leads Morgan on a high-speed investigation that mostly proceeds at a good clip, impeded by a few red herrings, an awful soundtrack, and fiancée Yolanda Donlan, sounding as if she is still decompressing from her lead in the London production of BORN YESTERDAY. Morgan's role is written as the Man Who Gets Things Done, mostly by lying when appropriate. Morrell only has a few scenes, but he's quite good in them, as a man trying to play his last card. The production is cheaply done, but nicely tangled.

André Morell is "Pitt" - in jail awaiting hanging for murdering a prostitute. At the last minute he contacts "Insp. Brown" (Terence Morgan) with information about master spy "Leonidas" who is about to take a top scientific secret behind the iron curtain - in return for his life! Together with his sidekick Anthony Oliver ("Insp. Newcombe") they set off to thwart this plan. It's a decent enough story that moves along a-pace. Yolande Donlan adds a bit of light relief as the fiancée who spends much of her time waiting around for her detective boyfriend and there are just enough red herrings to keep this intriguing, if a bit lightweight thriller, going for 75 minutes.

Sentenced to death for murder, a civil servant reveals that he has long been a foreign agent smuggling secrets out of the country. He meets with special branch officer Inspector Brown and offers to reveal the identity of an elusive master spy in return for a reprieve. With five days before Pitt is to be hung, Brown sets out to trace the identity of the spy without having to reprieve Pitt.

I was attracted to this film by the shameless title! "They Can't Hang Me" is the cry of Pitt as he is sentenced to death for murder. This happens within the first two minutes of the film in almost complete silence. It is from this point that our story begins - there is never any doubt that Pitt killed the woman but now he wants to deal. The mystery starts well and has potential but it is never filled as fully as I'd hoped at the start. Instead it goes off the rails and becomes baggy and the climax is a real damp squid. It's a shame because it moved quickly for 30 minutes or so and promised much. It is still worth watching once but it isn't very good.

The acting is reasonable for this type of British film of the period and I did quite enjoy the characters. Morgan's Brown is stern logic on force and his side kick from the murder squad adds plenty of light comic touches. Donlan's presence is a mystery and really contributes to the lack of focus and bagginess at times. I guess she was there for the US audience. The bad guys aren't as dangerous or as threatening as we are led to believe from their "master spy" billing, and don't really stick in the memory.

Overall this is an average mystery film but it could have been much better. The good opening and interesting build up in the first half is really good but the film can't deliver on the tension - it should have cranked up but instead it really lets itself go and gets baggy and loses focus.

They Can't Hang Me is directed by Val Guest and adapted to screenplay by Guest and Val Valentine from the novel written by Leonard Mosley. It stars Terence Morgan, Yolande Donlan, Andre Morell, Anthony Oliver and Reginald Beckwith.

When Robert Pitt (Morell) is convicted of murder and sentenced to death by execution, he offers the state a bargain. Grant him a reprieve and he will reveal the name of the master spy known as Leonidas before he leaves the country with some atomic secrets.

Thus it's a race against time thriller as the coppers follow the various leads while Pitt grows ever more frantic in his cell. Ideally the police want to find Leonidas without Pitt's help, he is after all a murderer and the state officials are reluctant to grant the requested reprieve. The usual quota of suspects are thrust into the story at regular intervals, giving us a "who is it" thread, while Morgan's head copper tries to keep his lover happy as the search for Leonidas constantly drags him away from planned romantic evenings with her. This is actually a fun thread that's not played for marital drama, as is the byplay between Morgan and Oliver, two intrepid Inspectors who exchange banter and quips even as the pressure mounts.

Enjoyable without ever reaching great heights as a spy thriller, They Can't Hang Me is cautiously recommended to fans of such genre fare. 6/10