It was the film debut of Howard Keel who made it while appearing in the original London production of Oklahoma![4]
The film received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film in 1949.[5]
The "small voice" of the title is referred to at the end of the film: the small voice in your own head, of one's conscience telling one not to do something.
Plot
Three ex-army men escape from Dartmoor Prison and kill a man to get his car. Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Byrne bicker on a train and discuss divorce before arriving at Llanbach in Wales, near their home. He has lost a leg in the war, and is very bitter. As a result they have drifted apart. He is now a playwright, and she is a stage actress.
As they drive along a country road at night they are stopped at a road block by police, who are looking for the three escaped convicts. Five minutes later the couple spot broken glass and a missing parapet on an awkward bend and Mr Byrne goes to investigate. A man comes up the dark embankment and says there is another man in the car. The couple take them to their house, which is only a mile away, intending to phone for medical assistance.[6]
They treat the injured man in the kitchen but the first man disappears and steals their car. They are immediately suspicious and the injured man pulls a gun.
Back at the crash scene the first convict locates the third man and it is revealed that they hit another car. They search and find the car. The chauffeur is dead but two children are cowering in the back seat. They take the children back to the house.
Mr and Mrs Byrne are locked in one room together and joke about the irony. The children are locked in a room with the Byrnes' housekeeper, Mrs Potter. The missing children's parents are at a police station trying to locate the missing car and children.
The next day the Sunday newspaper arrives and reveals that the escaped convicts have killed a policeman.
The well-educated children start correcting the convicts on their grammar. Mrs Potter distracts the convicts while Mrs Byrne escapes from an upper window. She is caught by Boke, the gang leader, while trying to make a call from a telephone box. He later explains to Mr Byrne that he was born in Liverpool but raised in Chicago, and he was in prison for killing an officer in his regiment.
The boy appears to have meningitis. Boke cannot stand the screaming and goes to shoot him. Mr Byrne finds an unattended gun and goes to shoot Boke, but he leaves the safety catch on. Boke points out his error, allowing Mr Byrne to kill him.
The film was produced by Tony Havelock Allan who later recalled:
It got very good notices and was very well received but didn’t make much money. Our director was Fergus McDonell, who was an editor for Carol Reed. Carol had suggested I give him a chance to direct. I nursed him through our film and he obviously had talent but he was so highly strung that he could very easily have had a nervous breakdown. He went to Canada afterwards and did well in the documentary field.[7]
Havelock-Allen said the film "got very good notices and a lot of help, but it didn’t make any real money. It made a few thousand, but the few thousand goes out of the window very quickly if you’ve got the rent of an office in Hanover Square and three or four employees."[8]
Reception
Box office
As of 30 June 1949 the film earned £80,000 in the UK of which £59,844 went to the producer.[1]
Critical
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Despite an exciting opening and the drama of the situation the film seems to lack power and grip. Possibly this is because the showing of the interminable details of life as lived by Murray, Eleanor, their maid, and the children during the grim weekend, whilst usefully serving to emphasize the long-drawn-out suspense felt by these unfortunates, has also the inevitable effect of slowing down the anticipatory excitement which should be felt by the audience as to the outcome of the plot."[9]
Virginia Graham wrote in The Spectator in 1948, "all this is admirably done, and eventually provides melodrama of an order as English and as excellent as muffins."[10]
TV Guide concluded that "the tension is sustained throughout, with some interesting plot twists along the way."[11]
In The Radio Times Guide to Films David Parkinson gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Howard Keel made his screen debut in this tense adaptation. Although he eventually proves to have a streak of decency, Keel is imposingly menacing as a convict who exploits the charity of James Donald and Valerie Hobson to hold them and a couple of children hostage until he and confederates David Greene and Michael Balfour can make good their escape. His performance led to a contract with MGM and typecasting as a singing hunk that would prevent him from playing an equally challenging role for many years."[12]
References
1 2 Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 354
↑ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p486
↑ Charles Drazin (2014) Film Finances: The First Years, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 34:1, 2-22, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2014.878999 p 6
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