Watch No Escape For Free

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Proof once again that a "B" picture needn't be "B" quality. But that was true of quite a few second features at MGM which gave even their lesser films a patina of quality. Lew Ayres stars as a drunk piano player cum songwriter who stumbles on a corpse and could be targeted by the police as the killer unless he can solve the crime. Sonny Tufts co-stars, wearing a suit that makes him look like a 300 pound wrestler walking around incognito. Ayres took a bad rap when he refused to serve as a soldier during World War 2 but distinguished himself as a medic. If nothing else, this film is a reminder of what a blithely ingratiating actor he was. Well worth watching

"No Escape" is a B movie starring Lew Ayres, Sonny Tufts, and Marjorie Steele, set in San Francisco.The best thing about this film is the look of the city, and all the '50s furnishings and men wearing hats. I know those features are in many films, but for some reason, I noticed them more in this.Lew Ayres plays alcoholic pianist/singer/songwriter John Howard Tracy who works in a club now that his career as a successful songwriter has ended. One night, a man named James Griffith gives him some money, which he doesn't realize until Griffith has left. He goes to his apartment to return the money and finds the man dead. There's also a sketch of a woman named Pat (Marjorie Steele), who was in the club earlier that evening.Tracy believes Pat to be the killer. Her boyfriend (Tufts) is a police officer who wants to frame Tracy for it and clear her. It goes from there, with Pat, unable to allow Tracy to be arrested for a crime he didn't commit, helps him while he's on the run.This film was made just ten years after "So Proudly We Hail" so what the hay happened to Sonny Tufts? He looks like a madman and a good 20 years older here. I admit I was never crazy about him, and I found his performance one note.Lew Ayres is very good, but the singing voice used seemed strange coming from him. Marjorie Steele only made a few films. She was an excellent stage actress and married - hello - Huntington Hartford, who got her into movies. But she retired to raise her family. She married twice more and today has commissions as a sculptor. A long way from "No Escape." An ordinary noir with great shots of San Francisco.

What a tepid little thriller this is, with LEW AYRES as a lounge lizard who sings for his supper, finds romance with a girl (MARJORIE STEELE) when both of them have to go on the lam for a crime they didn't commit. SONNY TUFTS is the detective on the case in what can only be described as a sketchily written role with almost no real substance. Miss Steele remains a nonentity throughout.As a result, this is a poorly motivated crime tale using authentic San Francisco backgrounds for some local color but the B&W photography is notably ineffective in bringing the film to life.Ayres seems to know he's coasting along in inferior material and only occasionally shows a flash of his talent that gives the tale a momentary lift from the ordinary. Tufts is solemn and humorless in a poorly written role as the detective who seems obsessed with keeping his girlfriend out of the case when it's discovered that she paid a visit to a murdered man.The revelation of the murderer comes as no big surprise.Summing up: Strictly a low-budget affair that never becomes the taut tale it strives to be, judging from the opening credits and music.

John Tracy, former hit maker and now a looser, is accused having murdered a man who escorted a lady at home. Of course we know he's innocent but the thrill of this movie is to see how he looks for a way to escape from the trap. The city is closed up by the police. To that point, note the remarkable directing by Charles Bennett showing us all the ways out of this place. Moreover the sightseeing of the town is oppressive : the illuminated streets are surrounded by the cops' sirens, which make the spectator thrill as if he were at John Tracy's place. Watch this great one to discover it. I've seen this film on german TV and I was surprised to discover that it was forbidden to minor under 16. I still wonder why.