http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Brother's_Keeper_(film) My Brother's Keeper is a 1948 British crime film in the form of a convicts-on-the-run chase thriller, directed by Alfred Roome for Gainsborough Pictures. It was the first of only two films directed by Roome (the other being the following year's comedy It's Not Cricket) during a long career as a film editor. The film stars Jack Warner and George Cole and was produced by Sydney Box.
Keeper My Brother’s Keeper – 1948 | 96 mins | Drama | B&W Plot Synopsis Two prisoners on their way to a West Country jail have escaped handcuffed together. One, George Martin (Jack Warner), is a hardened criminal; his companion Willie (George Cole) is a simple-minded youth who declares he is innocent of the crime for which he is awaiting trial.
Martin steals a corporal’s uniform and passes Willie off as a deserter in his charge. They make their way to a garage owned by friendly Nora Lawrence, who gives them a night’s shelter. Next morning, while filing their handcuffs apart in a lonely cottage, they are disturbed by a man with a sporting gun. Martin has no compunction in killing him. A little later, their handcuffs broken, he deserts Willie. Meanwhile, the police hunt has been joined by Ronald Waring, whose news-editor disdains the fact that Ronald is on his honeymoon. While he is being shaved in a barber’s shop Martin finds. himself sitting next to the local police sergeant. Then, seeking refuge in a chapel, he. is recognised by the sergeant’s wife while Willie gives himself up and is charged with the sportsman’s murder. Martin telephones his wife for money. A sympathetic taxi-driver drives her from London to bring it to him. They arrive as the fugitive is cornered in the woods. With the police on three sides, he makes a final bid for freedom by entering a minefield. Watched by reporters, sightseers, his wife, and Nora, he nimbly picks his way. Suddenly there is a, flash, a roar, a spout of smoke; the pursuit is over. Reception[edit source | editbeta]My Brother's Keeper is a well-regarded film, with a reputation as a tight, tense and fast-moving thriller with Roome's previous editing experience being well utilised. The characterisation of the two main protagonists is praised for going deeper than the stereotypes of the tough, reckless criminal and the dim, hapless innocent. Via the 1950 film The Blue Lamp, and Dixon of Dock Green, the TV series developed from it which ran until the mid-1970s, Warner became forever engrained on the British consciousness as George "Evenin' all" Dixon, the avuncular upholder of law and order. My Brother's Keeper is often cited as an example of the dramatic range of which Warner was capable, before he became typecast. Cole's performance too is credited as one of the factors in his unusually smooth transition from child star to adult actor. The film's main weakness is cited as the interpolation of a pseudo-comic and largely irrelevant subplot involving a newspaper reporter trying to cover the story while on honeymoon in the area.
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