Clash by Night

CLASH BY NIGHT is a low rent British crime film. I initially thought it was a Butcher's Films production but it turns out to be from a rival studio. The plot is slightly reminiscent of SPLIT SECOND in that it deals with a gang of ruthless criminals who manage to escape from their transport and take a group hostage. Instead of a nuclear explosion, though, here they lock various prison guards, policemen, and other prisoners into a petrol-soaked barn with the threat of imminent immolation.

Part of the story follows a police investigation as they attempt to track down the culprits while another follows the melodrama taking place inside the barn. Given that this is an entirely low budget production, there isn't a great deal of suspense or tension here, but there are some fairly good performances from the familiar cast members. Terence Longdon (a familiar face from the Carry On films) is the leader of the gang, but my favourite performance came from Peter Sallis (LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE), playing a simple fellow with a passion for fire. What a performance, a total opposite to his later parts!

I think this might have done better had Monty Tully searched a bit harder for a more charismatic leading man. As it is, we are saddled with the rather unremarkable Terence Landon in the lead role. He is a member of a group who ambush a bus carrying one of their leader "Bart" (Tom Bowman), and proceed to lock the remaining passengers and the prison officers in a barn that they claim is soaked with paraffin. They will escape, leaving their captives inside and woe betides if they try to escape. Meantime, the police find the corpse of someone who ought to already be in jail and after a quick investigation realise that the bus didn't make to to it's destination. Now they have to trace it before a conflagration consumes everyone - it's Guy Fawkes' night! The plot tries to juggle the police activities with the increasingly melodramatic behaviour inside the barn (prisoners who have been harshly treated, hard done by, etc.), and in the muddle we end up with quite a lot of dialogue and not a lot of jeopardy as the story really does follow well trammelled lines. To be fair, the supporting cast of reliable British faces add some quirkiness and character to the thing, and Jennifer Jayne ("Nita") does all that is required of her (not very much) but this is still just a routine afternoon B-filler that passes seventy-five minutes but is a film that you will never remember.

'Clash by Night' aka 'Escape by Night' (1964) is some terrifically thrilling, nerve-drilling, pulse-hijacking, hard-hitting Brit-crime celluloid from the 1960s! This boisterous, roustabout B-movie features a VERY unusually sinister performance by Peter Sallis as backward child killer Victor Lush! One of the best creepy-claustrophobic crims locked in a petrol-soaked barn on Bonfire night crime thrillers I've ever seen!! And, cor blimey, mayte! If it don' 'ave quite the most incendiary finale, guv'! And once again the ubiquitous Harry Fowler woz on spiv-tastic form! 'Escape by Night' gotta liver-lashing kick on it like a generously gelignited Gin-spritzer!!!! Strike a light, mayte!!! You'll be awlright wiv the high-octane 'Escape by Night'.

One of the two leather-jacketed 'heavies' guarding the barn is a very young version of Heartbeat's Alf Ventress.

PS: Always enjoyed the double casting of Simon Williams & William Simons in the first episode of the Inspector Alleyn series.

Arthur Lovegrove has had a typically bad night betting on the dogs. A gentleman buys him a couple of drinks, and suggests he might make a few extra dollars; he drives the bus carrying prisoners to prison. Later, we see them and their warders -- one of whom has been killed -- taken to a barn. The place is loaded with paraffin, and should any try to escape, it will be lit. Several of them find an escape hatch, and we learn about them, and why they are there, as the police try to figure out where they are.

Some are there for good reason, like Harry Fowler, a career thief; he bonds with Terence Longden, who killed in hand-to-hand struggle a man trying to rape his wife. Then there's Peter Sallis as a slow-witted crazy man, in a role far from his usual acting jobs.

It's handled nicely by director Montgomery Tully, with some nicely drawn characters. Cameraman Geoffrey Faithfull, whose career as a cinematographer stretched almost 60 years gets to handle a nice final night scene.