This is atypically gritty fare for Ealing (with the distribution handled by MGM, who excised some 15 minutes so that the film could fit into a double-bill!) – for the record, I have watched a couple of established classics from them in this vein, namely IT ALWAYS RAINS ON Sunday (1947; helmed by Seth Holt's brother-in-law, Robert Hamer!) and THE BLUE LAMP (1950), and among a few I own but have yet to check out is THE SIEGE OF PINCHGUT aka FOUR DESPERATE MEN (1959), which happened to be the famed company's very last effort! Anyway, following years honing his craft as an editor and getting a hang of the business side of movie-making as well in the capacity of associate producer, Holt graduated to the director's chair with NOWHERE TO GO and, as already intimated, deliberately set out to make "the least 'Ealing' Ealing film ever made"!
The result is a powerful noir (with exemplary cinematography by Paul Beeson and, accordingly, editing accompanied by Dizzy Reece's notable jazz score), which style flourished in Britain during those years – numbering the likes of HELL IS A CITY and THE CRIMINAL (both 1960) among its most notable titles, but also ACROSS THE BRIDGE (1957) which, as with the film under review, continued the prevalent practice of the time of recruiting a Hollywood leading man to enhance its commercial appeal overseas. In this case, it is George Nader: having recently watched him in the unenthusing pair of William Castle's would-be spectacle SERPENT OF THE NILE – THE LOVES OF CLEOPATRA (1953) and the low-brow Harry Alan Towers adaptation of Sax Rohmer's THE MILLION EYES OF SUMURU (1967), I frankly had little faith in his ability to carry this through; however, I was glad to be proved wrong as he made for a compelling presence here, managing the various nuances of his complex character with remarkable ease.
The film immediately starts off with a suspense situation as Nader is sprung from jail by his partner (and ex-army buddy) Bernard Lee; then, we follow in flashback how he came to be there, having fleeced an ageing socialite out of the proceeds from the sale of her late husband's priceless collection of old coins – interestingly, he had practically given himself up, hoping to get 5 years but he is given double that amount
and, of course, he is not about to wait that long to reap the rewards of his gambit! However, he soon falls foul of the brutish Lee, who believes Nader had double-crossed him when, in fact, he had been unable to make the collection from the safe deposit-box due to the sudden arrival of the Police Inspector (Geoffrey Keen) who had arrested him! No longer trusting his accomplice, he surprises him at his home and ties him up and gags him; he had already demonstrated his resourcefulness by affecting a club-foot while dealing with the bank because, as he says, "nobody looks a cripple in the face". Unfortunately, Lee dies from having choked on his false teeth which were dislodged during his struggles to break free...so that Nader is now both a fugitive and a murderer!
He tries to get help from a number of underworld contacts but they either 'rat' on him to the Police or else deem him "too hot", which makes him realize he has to go it alone – however, support does come his way in the form of Maggie Smith (vaguely glamorous in her movie debut) as the ditched girlfriend of the owner of the flat in which Nader had been hiding out. Eventually, she shelters him in her family's Welsh cottage (while admitting that her uncle is a Police constable!), but the dogged Keen soon turns up there to interrogate her. The ultimate irony is that Nader panics upon spying the scene from afar through a pair of binoculars – when Smith is somehow released virtually instantly! – and, caught stealing a bike, is shot by its proprietor; though he succeeds in taking off in the man's lorry regardless, he succumbs to his wounds shortly after, leaving the girl to ponder her own future.
The intelligent script was written by Holt himself (actually, the only one he penned of his 6 directorial efforts!) in collaboration with eminent film critic Kenneth Tynan; while the central premise of a doomed man on the run has seen ample service over the years (the prototype being perhaps Carol Reed's ODD MAN OUT {1946}), this is still pretty much an unsung gem within the genre. For what it is worth, other influences can be identified in the early scenes of the conniving protagonist ingratiating himself with the old lady, which recall a similar ruse in WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957), and also the downbeat country-side ending that is redolent of both THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) and HELL DRIVERS (1957)!
