My Brother's Keeper (film)

Last updated

My Brother's Keeper
Mbkposter1948.jpg
UK release poster
Directed by Alfred Roome
Written by Frank Harvey
Story byMaurice Wiltshire
Produced by Sydney Box
Starring Jack Warner
George Cole
CinematographyGordon Lang
Edited byEsmond Seal
Music by Clifton Parker
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release date
  • 9 August 1948 (1948-08-09)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£113,600 [1] [2] or £100,000 [3]
Box office£104,200 [4]

My Brother's Keeper is a 1948 British crime film in the form of a convicts-on-the-run chase thriller, directed by Alfred Roome for Gainsborough Pictures. It was the first of only two films directed by Roome (the other being the following year's comedy It's Not Cricket ) during a long career as a film editor. The film stars Jack Warner and George Cole and was produced by Sydney Box.

Contents

Plot

Handcuffed together, George Martin (Jack Warner) and Willie Stannard (George Cole) are two prisoners being transported to prison. Martin is a hardened, cynical career criminal, while Stannard is a naïve, rather dull-witted youth who has never previously been in trouble with the law, maintains his innocence of the rape of which he has been accused and is terrified by the prospect of prison. During the journey the pair manage to escape. Martin steals an army corporal's uniform and passes Stannard off as a deserter in his charge being returned to face a military tribunal, which explains why they are handcuffed together.

The escape location has been chosen by Martin for its proximity to a garage run by his mistress Nora Lawrence (Jane Hylton), who provides the pair with overnight shelter. The following day Martin and Stannard take refuge in a derelict isolated cottage. While trying to file their handcuffs apart they are surprised by a man hunting with a shotgun. Martin strikes the man on the head, killing him. Shortly thereafter they manage to separate the handcuffs and Martin abandons Stannard, going on the run alone. Stannard gives himself up and is promptly charged with murder.

Martin manages to contact his wife in London, asking if she can find a way to get money to him. She arranges to travel in a taxi driven by a friend of hers to where he is hiding and to leave clothes and money for him at a barber's shop. Just as she arrives, the police have tracked Martin down and have him cornered, halting her progress. Rather than give himself up, Martin makes a final doomed attempt to escape through a warning-signed minefield, watched by police, reporters, his wife, mistress and a crowd of sensation-seeking gawkers.

Cast

Production

The film was originally known as Double Pursuit. It was produced by Sydney Box who had just taken over as head of production at Gainsborough Studios and was keen to develop new talent via lower budget films. The film was based on a story by journalist Maurice Wiltshire, his first for cinema; it was the first screenplay for Frank Harvey, first credit as full producer for Anthony Yarnborough, first film for Alfred Roome, first film for the editor and cinematographer, and first starring role for George Cole. [5]

Filming started in December 1947. Gainsborough had meant to make another film that month called Roses Her Pillow, but production on that was postponed when Margaret Lockwood refused to star and Sydney Box could not find anyone he felt was suitable to replace her, so he brought forward Double Pursuit on the studio's schedule. The original stars announced were Jack Warner, John McCallum and Peter Hammond. [6] McCallum and Hammond did not appear in the final movie.

The film was shot in 45 days, nine ahead of schedule and £20,000 under budget. [7]

My Brother's Keeper's exterior location sequences were filmed in the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire border area, including scenes shot at the now abandoned Aston Rowant railway station.

Several people who worked on the film were rewarded with long-term contracts at Gainsborough. [5]

Reception

My Brother's Keeper is well-regarded, with a reputation as a tight, tense and fast-moving thriller with Roome's previous editing experience being well utilised. The characterisation of the two main protagonists is praised for going deeper than the stereotypes of the tough, reckless criminal and the dim, hapless innocent.

Warner's performance in the film is often cited as an example of the dramatic range of which he was capable, before he became typecast as the avuncular upholder of law and order George "Evenin' all" Dixon via the 1950 film The Blue Lamp , and Dixon of Dock Green , the TV series developed from it which ran until the mid-1970s.

Cole's performance is credited as one of the factors in his unusually smooth transition from child star to adult actor.

The film's main weakness is cited as the interpolation of a pseudo-comic and largely irrelevant subplot involving a newspaper reporter trying to cover the story while on honeymoon in the area, although this 'framing device' could also be likened to the 'comic relief' interludes found in Shakespearian – and other – tragedies which somehow both enhance and make bearable the serious 'meat' of the drama.

Box Office

By December 1949 the film earned £93,600. [1] Eventually, producer's receipts were £81,200 in the UK and £23,000 overseas. [2] According to one account, this meant the film recorded a loss of £9,400. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Warner (actor)</span> English actor (1895–1981)

Jack Warner, OBE was a British actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played in the 1950 film The Blue Lamp and later in the television series Dixon of Dock Green from 1955 until 1976, but he was also for some years one of Britain's most popular film stars.

<i>Miranda</i> (1948 film) 1948 British film

Miranda is a 1948 black and white British comedy film, directed by Ken Annakin and written by Peter Blackmore, who also wrote the play of the same name from which the film was adapted. The film stars Glynis Johns, Googie Withers, Griffith Jones, Margaret Rutherford, John McCallum and David Tomlinson. Denis Waldock provided additional dialogue. Music for the film was played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Muir Mathieson. The sound director was B. C. Sewell.

Frank Sydney Box was a British film producer and screenwriter, and brother of British film producer Betty Box. In 1940, he founded the documentary film company Verity Films with Jay Lewis.

<i>Quartet</i> (1948 film) 1948 British anthology film

Quartet is a 1948 British anthology film with four segments, each based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham. The author appears at the start and end of the movie to introduce the stories and comment about his writing career. It was successful enough to produce two sequels, Trio (1950) and Encore (1951), and popularised the compendium film format, leading to films such as O. Henry's Full House in 1952.

<i>Here Come the Huggetts</i> 1948 British film

Here Come the Huggetts is a 1948 British comedy film, the first of the Huggetts series, about a working class English family. All three films in the series were directed by Ken Annakin and released by Gainsborough Pictures.

<i>Easy Money</i> (1948 film) 1948 British film

Easy Money is a 1948 British satirical film about a modern British tradition, the football pools. It is composed of four tales about the effect a major win has in four different situations in the post-war period. Written by Muriel and Sydney Box, based on the play "Easy Money" written by Arnold Ridley, and directed by Bernard Knowles, it was released by Gainsborough Pictures.

<i>A Place of Ones Own</i> 1945 film

A Place of One's Own is a 1945 British film directed by Bernard Knowles. An atmospheric ghost story based on the 1940 novel of the same title by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray. Mason and Mullen are artificially aged to play the old couple. It was one of the cycle of Gainsborough Melodramas.

<i>It Always Rains on Sunday</i> 1947 British film

It Always Rains on Sunday is a 1947 British film adaptation of Arthur La Bern's novel of the same name, directed by Robert Hamer. The film has been compared with the poetic realism movement in the French cinema of a few years earlier by the British writers Robert Murphy and Graham Fuller.

<i>Trio</i> (1950 film) 1950 film by Harold French, Ken Annakin

Trio is a 1950 British anthology film based on three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham: "The Verger", "Mr Know-All" and "Sanatorium". Ken Annakin directed "The Verger" and "Mr Know-All", while Harold French was responsible for "Sanatorium".

The Huggetts are a fictional family who appear in a series of British films which were released in the late 1940s by Gainsborough Pictures. The films centre on the character of Joe Huggett, played by Jack Warner, the head of a working class London family. Along with the Gainsborough melodramas, the Huggett films proved popular and lucrative for the studio. All four films were directed by Ken Annakin and produced by Betty E. Box.

<i>The Huggetts Abroad</i> 1949 British film

The Huggetts Abroad is a 1949 British comedy drama film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Petula Clark and Susan Shaw. It was the fourth and final film in The Huggetts series.

<i>Holiday Camp</i> (film) 1947 British film

Holiday Camp is a 1947 British comedy drama film directed by Ken Annakin, starring Flora Robson, Jack Warner, Dennis Price, and Hazel Court, and also features Kathleen Harrison and Jimmy Hanley. It is set at one of the then-popular holiday camps. It resonated with post-war audiences and was very successful. It was the first film to feature the Huggett family, who went on to star in "The Huggetts" film series.

<i>The Bad Lord Byron</i> 1949 film by David MacDonald

The Bad Lord Byron is a 1949 British historical drama film about the life of Lord Byron. It was directed by David MacDonald and starred Dennis Price as Byron with Mai Zetterling, Linden Travers and Joan Greenwood.

<i>Marry Me!</i> (1949 film) 1949 British film

Marry Me! is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Terence Fisher, and starring Derek Bond, Susan Shaw, Patrick Holt, Carol Marsh and David Tomlinson.

<i>The Bridal Path</i> (film) 1959 British film by Sidney Gilliat

The Bridal Path is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder and starring Bill Travers, George Cole and Bernadette O'Farrell. It is based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Nigel Tranter. The film was an unsuccessful attempt to repeat the success of Launder and Gilliat's earlier Geordie (1955).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Hylton</span> British actress (1927–1979)

Jane Hylton was an English actress who accumulated 30 film credits, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, before moving into television work in the latter half of her career in the 1960s and 1970s.

<i>Dear Murderer</i> 1947 British film by Arthur Crabtree

Dear Murderer is a 1947 British film noir crime, drama, thriller, directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures, and starring Eric Portman and Greta Gynt.

<i>Shine On, Harvest Moon</i> (1944 film) 1944 film by David Butler

Shine On, Harvest Moon is a 1944 musical–biographical film about the vaudeville team of Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, who wrote the popular song "Shine On, Harvest Moon." The film was directed by David Butler and stars Ann Sheridan and Dennis Morgan Sheridan's singing voice was dubbed by Lynn Martin.

Verity Films was a British documentary film production company, founded by Sydney Box and Jay Gardner Lewis in March or May 1940.

<i>A Boy, a Girl and a Bike</i> 1949 British film

A Boy, a Girl and a Bike is a 1949 British romantic comedy film directed by Ralph Smart and starring John McCallum, Honor Blackman and Patrick Holt. The film's art direction was by George Provis. The film concerns the romantic escapades and adventures of a Yorkshire cycling club.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Andrew Spicer, Sydney Box Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 210
  2. 1 2 Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 354.
  3. ↑ "Kinematograph Year Book 1949". Kinematograph Publications. 1949.
  4. ↑ Chapman p 354. Income is in terms of producer's share of receipts
  5. 1 2 Spicer, Andrew (April 2006). 'The Apple of Mr. Rank's Mercatorial Eye': Managing Director of Gainsborough Pictures. p. 110.
  6. ↑ "Star Wins Dispute With Studio". The News . Adelaide. 5 November 1947. p. 4. Retrieved 16 June 2020– via Trove.
  7. ↑ "June Clyde Flies Here". The Mail . Adelaide. 14 February 1948. p. 2 (SUNDAY MAGAZINE). Retrieved 16 June 2020– via Trove.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.