Branded as criminally insane and incarcerated for a murder he did not commit, Speight escapes from the asylum, determined to clear his name. He befriends private detective Hugo Bishop who, convinced that the wrong man has been convicted, agrees to help find the real killer. They begin their search for the murderer closest to home where both Thelma Speight and her employer Maurice Jerrard were visibly distressed by the news of her husband's jailbreak. More than Speight's 'insanity' fuels their worries.
Direction
Fisher's asylum breakout sequence—tight, desperate, clinical.
Acting
Henreid's Bishop: weary, moral, barely keeping his own secrets.
Cinematography
Hammer-before-Hammer gloom on a shoestring.
Director
Terence Fisher
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Terence Fisher's second feature for Hammer Films, three years before he revolutionized horror with Curse of Frankenstein.
Lois Maxwell here plays a potential femme fatale—five years later she'd be cast as Miss Moneypenny, Bond's eternally patient secretary.
GB
