''The Break'' is a 1963 British

second feature A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second half of a double feature, s ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Lance Comfort Lance Comfort (11 August 1908 – 25 August 1966) was an English film director. He was a prolific maker of B movies from 1945 to 1965. Early life Lance Comfort was born in Harrow, London on 11 August 1908. Career In a career spanning over ...

and starring

Tony Britton Anthony Edward Lowry Britton (9 June 1924 – 22 December 2019) was an English actor. He appeared in a variety of films (including '' The Day of the Jackal'') and television sitcoms (including '' Don't Wait Up'' and '' Robin's Nest''). Backgrou ...

, William Lucas and Christina Gregg. It was written by Pip and Jane Baker.

Plot

Jacko Thomas is a dangerous criminal who escapes from the train taking him to prison and hides in the secluded

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

hotel run by Judd Tredgar, who had arranged his escape. Also staying at the hotel are Thomas's sister Sue, private detective Pearson, and novelist Greg Parker, the man Pearson is investigating. When Pearson discovers that Tredgar is running a smuggling racket, Thomas kills him. Meanwhile Parker has fallen in love with Sue, and finds himself in a dangerous situation. Parker and Thomas fight, and Sarah, the mute servant, kills Thomas, as an act of revenge for his murder of her brother Moses.

Cast

as Greg Parker * William Lucas as Jacko Thomas * Eddie Byrne as Judd Tredgar * Robert Urquhart as Pearson * Sonia Dresdel as Sarah *

Edwin Richfield Edwin Richfield (11 September 1921 – 2 August 1990) was an English actor. Career Richfield starred in the television series '' Interpol Calling'' (1959). He was '' The Odd Man'' in Granada Television's series of the same name in the early 19 ...

as Moses * Gene Anderson as Jean Tredgar * Christina Gregg as Sue Thomas *

Patrick Jordan Albert Patrick Jordan (10 October 1923 – 10 January 2020) was a British stage, film and television actor. Biography He was born and raised in Harrow, Middlesex, the son of Margaret, a cook, and Albert Jordan, a regimental sergeant major. An ...

as driver *

John Junkin John Francis Junkin (29 January 1930 – 7 March 2006) was an English actor and scriptwriter who had a long career in radio, television and film, specialising in comedy. Early life Born in Ealing, Middlesex, the son of a policeman, Junkin a ...

as Harry * Marshall Jones as Jim

Critical response

Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' said: "A routine plot, adequately acted by a cast which deserved better things. Set principally in the farmhouse, the few exteriors used are bleak moorland and quarry – in keeping, perhaps, with the melodrama and general dreariness of the production." Chibnall and McFarlane in ''The British 'B' Film'' wrote: "''The Break'' has a striking pre-credits sequence (a device not then very common) involving a criminal's leap from a train, a murder and an arrest. Comfort typically takes the film out of that stagy interior setting, avoiding that airless, studio-set claustrophobia with so often bedevils British budget film-making, and the action sequences are handled with real flair. The narrative shifts to a farmhouse, run as a hotel by an edgy married couple who are also involved in a smuggling racket. The setting-and-character mix sometimes recalls old-fashioned three-act plays, but a strong cast (including Sonia Dresdel as a grimly enigmatic cook, and William Lucas as the fugitive) gives point to the film's relationships." ''The

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

Guide to Films'' gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Lance Comfort directs this plodding whodunnit, in which a detective, a novelist, a fleeing crook and his sister stumble upon dark deeds on a Devon farm. Tony Britton does his best in the lead, but the mystery isn't likely to put too much strain on your little grey cells."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Break 1963 films British drama films 1963 drama films 1960s English-language films 1960s British films Films scored by Brian Fahey