Escape from Broadmoor

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Escape from Broadmoor
"Escape from Broadmoor" (1948 film).jpg
Directed by John Gilling
Screenplay byJohn Gilling
Produced byHarry Reynolds
Starring John Stuart
Victoria Hopper
John Le Mesurier
Cinematography Cyril Bristow
Edited by Maurice Rootes
Distributed byGrand National Pictures (British)
Release date
  • December 1948 (1948-12)
Running time
38 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Escape from Broadmoor is a 1948 British second feature ('B') [1] short film directed and written by John Gilling and starring Victoria Hopper, John Stuart and John Le Mesurier, in one of his earliest screen appearances. [2] A man escapes from an asylum and is hunted down by police.

Contents

The title is a reference to Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire. It was the last film appearance of Victoria Hopper who had been a prominent leading lady in the 1930s[ citation needed ].

Plot

An insane killer escapes from Broadmoor Hospital, and returns to the scene of a ten-year-old crime, where the ghost of a servant girl he killed is bent on revenge.

Cast

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This is a hackneyed story ... The film is a tedious and deplorably unimaginative production." [3]

Chibnall and Macfarlaine, writing in The British 'B' Film, describe the film as "a fanciful melodrama ... interesting in the way it confronts the themes of loss, guilt, atonement, revenge and the survival of the spirit, that were preoccupations in a variety of post-war genres." [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 134. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ↑ "Escape from Broadmoor". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
  3. ↑ "Escape from Broadmoor" . The Monthly Film Bulletin . 16 (181): 2. 1 January 1949 – via ProQuest.
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