With Easter coming up,I started looking for movies to watch with my dad during the Easter holidays. Impressed by his work on the Hammer Noir Cloudburst,I was pleased to learn that a DVD seller had recently tracked down a "quota quickie" by Francis Searle,which led to me finding the exit for a viewing.The plot:After spending his life working in the force, Supt. Harcourt starts looking forward to retirement. Unknown to Harcourt,his daughter Shirley crosses paths with crime boss John Chandos. Learning of what Shirley has been caught up in,Harcourt sees for the first time that the one way out,is to cross the thin blue line. View on the film:Driving by in 58 minutes,director Francis Searle & cinematographer Walter J. Harvey find the door to a rustic Film Noir atmosphere with location shooting (and the Hammer studio Bray) breathing in the London fog,and corned shots giving the buildings a burnt out appearance. Joined by a surprisingly strong-armed Arthur Lowe as Sam, Jill Adams gives this short and sweet flick Femme Fatale elegance as Shirley Harcourt,who Adams shows has a deep fear of being stuck in the deep end. Despite the short run time,the screenplay by Jonathan Roche/Jean Scott Rogers and John Temple-Smith disappointingly fails to pick up the pace,by giving Supt. Harcourt search to clear his daughter an oddly relaxed,casual feel,as Supt. Harcourt finds the one way out for Shirley.

I'll admit that Jill Adams is a very lovely lady and that this tightly budgeted British "B" movie is well acted by almost all its players, and that it is capably directed and that it moderately holds the viewer's interest over its one-hour running time. But with tens of thousands of much more exciting movies to choose from, why go to all the trouble and expense of issuing this small-time British quota quickie on an American DVD? Even in Britain itself, the Jill Adams fan club (if there ever was such a fan club – which I strongly doubt) held its annual meetings during the lunch hour at her agent's office. And in this movie, for all Jill's attractive looks and undeniable charisma, she is easily outclassed by other players including Lyndon Brook (misspelled "Brooke" on the DVD), John Chandos and even Eddie Byrne (who is actually the number one star of this movie, even if he is not so much as mentioned on the back cover art and blurb of the well-executed VintageFilmBuff DVD).

A very short movie with low production standards, but a story worthy of Shakespeare. It's a profound tragedy played in standard cops and robbers costume. Quick, somebody buy this story and do a modern remake! A policeman faced with deep moral choices finds that once he's set foot on the path of corruption he is trapped by an ever more complex web of lies and intrigue. A lifetime of personal honor is at stake and we wonder if redemption is possible. All is revealed in a dramatic ending.Anyone able to sit still and concentrate for just an hour will be thoroughly rewarded. The ending is indeed sudden and possibly surprising, but not hard to understand.

A girl gets herself hooked up in with a bunch of crooks, and gets the rap for a crime she did not commit. Her father is a retiring policeman who finds out about the crime, and goes against his morals to hatch an elaborate plan to cover his daughter. Well acted and interesting, but very short, and the abrupt ending will leave you going "what the?"