Nowhere to Go

Dame Maggie Smith died last year, and a month or two later TCM did the night of films tribute in her honor. I had seen and blogged on three of the five movies, with two needing a recording so that I could watch them later and put up a post on them. The first of those two is, in fact, Smith's debut role in a British film called Nowhere to Go.

Smith is in a supporting role and we don't see her for some time. The movie begins with a late-night sequence outside a prison. An explosion occurs, and one of the prisoners uses that as an excuse to escape. Well, not an excuse, as that was the plan: the man, Paul Gregory (George Nader), gets out of his cell, climbs over the wall, and makes his way to an apartment in London that's currently lying idle as its owner is out of town for three months. Gregory thinks back to how he wound up in prison, although only about the first third of the movie is subject to the obligatory flashback....

Gregory is a Canadian expat in London, who shows up at an arena for an ice hockey game, which is an exotic thing in London of the mid-1950s but of course not exotic for Canadians. One such Canadian is Harriet Jefferson (1920s star Bessie Love), who is the widow of a man who was a prominent coin collector. Harriet has no interest in coins, so is in Europe to sell the collection, and would like to see the hockey game. Her reserved seat has been cancelled, so Gregory kindly offers her his extra ticket. This is of course a ruse, as he's there to gain her confidence to let him sell the coins. His plan is to sell the coins for cash and abscond with the money, aided by phony coin dealer Sloane calling himself Henderson (Bernard Lee).

Gregory's plan was to put the cash in a safety deposit box, serve the shortish sentence for a first-time offender -- at least in Britain, as he's come here to escape his Canadian criminal past -- and then get the money from the box. But the judge gives him a ten-year sentence, which necessitates the escape. Gregory meets up with Sloane for a penultimate time to get his fake passport and to inform Sloane where to meet him for the second half of the payoff. But then Bridget (Maggie Smith), the girlfriend of the man whose apartment it is, shows up, not knowing that the man went away for a couple of months (or at least it's her story about being the girlfriend, and Sloane's story about the guy having suddenly left England for three months).

Gregory gets to the bank to get the money, but finds... a policeman who arrested him and would certainly recognize him as the escaped convict. (It is, however, surprising that the bank employees don't recognize him.) Sloane wants his money, and when he finds Gregory doesn't have it on hand yet, decides to double-cross Gregory. Things spiral out of control and Gregory winds up killing Sloane and being on the run for that murder as well as for being an escaped convict. But as he's on the run, what should happen but he runs into Bridget again? And she seems willing to help him escape....

Nowhere to Go was made at, of all places, Ealing, but under the auspices of the British branch of MGM who were planning to distribute it in the States. It's not what you normally think of when you think Ealing, but it's a surprisingly good little noirish movie. Maggie Smith doesn't have a lot to do here, but she does a good enough job. Nader is good too as a sort of average Joe who happens to be a tough conman. Nowhere to Go is definitely worth watching if you haven't seen it before.