Dir: Joseph Losey | Cast: Michael Redgrave, Ann Todd, Peter Cushing, Leo McKern, Paul Daneman | Drama
Joseph Losey had recently arrived in Britain with first hand experience of persecution from his experience of being the sharp end of the the activities of the HUAC and with scores to settle he sank his teeth into that fine old American tradition of capital punishment in this tense drama.
Michael Redgrave plays a desperate father engaged in a desperate race against time to save his sons life but finds that no one will help him (There’s a searing attack on public complacency when George Devine declares Redgrave as guilty as the rest of the general public of total indifference).
The general stridency of technique is reflected in Leo McKern’s wild overacting. @RichardChatten