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Breakout (1959 film)

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Breakout
Directed byPeter Graham Scott
Written byPeter Barnes
Based onthe book Breakout by Frederick Oughton[1]
Produced byLeslie Parkyn
Julian Wintle
StarringLee Patterson
Hazel Court
Terence Alexander
Dermot Kelly
CinematographyEric Cross
Edited byEric Boyd-Perkins
Production
company
Distributed byAnglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK)
Release date
  • March 1959 (1959-03)
(UK)
Running time
62 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Breakout is a 1959 British crime drama film directed by Peter Graham Scott and starring Lee Patterson, Hazel Court and Terence Alexander.[2] It was written by Peter Barnes bsed on the 1959 novel Breakout by Frederick Oughton.

Plot

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Arkwright is a fraudster serving a seven-year prison sentence. He gets word to his contact Chandler that he wants out. Chandler and his partner Farrow contract George Munro to organise the job of springing Arkwright. Munro hatches a plan involving a rigged delivery van.

Cast

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Production

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The film was shot at Beaconsfield Studios. Location shooting took place in the West End area of Aldershot in Hampshire. The gates of the East Cavalry Barracks on Barrack Road stood in for the prison gates used in the breakout. Other scenes were filmed in Uxbridge.

Critical reception

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The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This moderately tense crime thriller distracts attention from the improbability of the escape preparations by skilful handing of background and detail. Although there is an intermittently successful attempt to build up Monro as a convincing character, the other figures all come from stock."[3]

In British Sound Films David Quinlan called the film a "quite exciting vest-pocket thriller with edgy performances."[4]

References

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  1. ^ Goble, Alan (1 January 1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110951943 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ "Breakout (1959)". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  3. ^ "Breakout". Monthly Film Bulletin. 26 (300): 44. 1 January 1960 – via ProQuest.
  4. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 287. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
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