My Brother's Keeper (film)

My Brother's Keeper
UK release poster
Directed by	Alfred Roome
Written by	Frank Harvey
Story by	Maurice Wiltshire
Produced by	Sydney Box
Starring	Jack Warner George Cole
Cinematography	Gordon Lang
Edited by	Esmond Seal
Music by	Clifton Parker
Production company	Gainsborough Pictures
Distributed by	General Film Distributors
Release date	9 August 1948
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£113,600^[1]^[2] or £100,000^[3]
Box office	£104,200^[4]

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.

Plot

Handcuffed together, George Martin (Jack Warner) and Willie Stannard (George Cole) are two prisoners being transported to prison. Martin is a hardened, cynical career criminal, while Stannard is a naïve, rather dull-witted youth who has never previously been in trouble with the law, maintains his innocence of the rape of which he has been accused and is terrified by the prospect of prison. During the journey the pair manage to escape. Martin steals an army corporal's uniform and passes Stannard off as a deserter in his charge being returned to face a military tribunal, which explains why they are handcuffed together.

The escape location has been chosen by Martin for its proximity to a garage run by his mistress Nora Lawrence (Jane Hylton), who provides the pair with overnight shelter. The following day Martin and Stannard take refuge in a derelict isolated cottage. While trying to file their handcuffs apart they are surprised by a man hunting with a shotgun. Martin strikes the man on the head, killing him. Shortly thereafter they manage to separate the handcuffs and Martin abandons Stannard, going on the run alone. Stannard gives himself up and is promptly charged with murder.

Martin manages to contact his wife in London, asking if she can find a way to get money to him. She arranges to travel in a taxi driven by a friend of hers to where he is hiding and to leave clothes and money for him at a barber's shop. Just as she arrives, the police have tracked Martin down and have him cornered, halting her progress. Rather than give himself up, Martin makes a final doomed attempt to escape through a warning-signed minefield, watched by police, reporters, his wife, mistress and a crowd of sensation-seeking gawkers.

Cast

Jack Warner as George Martin
Jane Hylton as Nora Lawrence
David Tomlinson as Ronnie Waring
George Cole as Willie Stannard
Yvonne Owen as Meg Waring
Raymond Lovell as Bill Wainwright
Bill Owen as Syd Evans
Brenda Bruce as Winnie Foreman
Susan Shaw as Beryl
Beatrice Varley as Jenny Martin
Garry Marsh as Brewster
Maurice Denham as Superintendent Trent
Frederick Piper as Gordon
Wilfrid Hyde-White as Harding
John Boxer as Police Sergeant Bert Foreman
Amy Veness as Mrs. Gully
Fred Groves as Crown Hotel landlord
Arthur Hambling as Edward Hodges
Valentine Dyall as Inspector at Milton Wells
George Merritt as Constable at Milton Wells
Jack Raine as Chief Constable Col. Heatherly
Ben Williams as Policeman at Nora's Garage
Christopher Lee as Second Constable

Production

The film was originally known as Double Pursuit. It was produced by Sydney Box who had just taken over as head of production at Gainsborough Studios and was keen to develop new talent via lower budget films. The film was based on a story by journalist Maurice Wiltshire, his first for cinema; it was the first screenplay for Frank Harvey, first credit as full producer for Anthony Yarnborough, first film for Alfred Roome, first film for the editor and cinematographer, and first starring role for George Cole.^[5]

Filming started in December 1947. Gainsborough had meant to make another film that month called Roses Her Pillow, but production on that was postponed when Margaret Lockwood refused to star and Sydney Box could not find anyone he felt was suitable to replace her, so he brought forward Double Pursuit on the studio's schedule. The original stars announced were Jack Warner, John McCallum and Peter Hammond.^[6] McCallum and Hammond did not appear in the final movie.

The film was shot in 45 days, nine ahead of schedule and £20,000 under budget.^[7]

My Brother's Keeper's exterior location sequences were filmed in the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire border area, including scenes shot at the now abandoned Aston Rowant railway station.

Several people who worked on the film were rewarded with long-term contracts at Gainsborough.^[5]

Reception

My Brother's Keeper is well-regarded, 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.

Warner's performance in the film is often cited as an example of the dramatic range of which he was capable, before he became typecast as the avuncular upholder of law and order George "Evenin' all" Dixon via the 1950 film The Blue Lamp, and Dixon of Dock Green, the TV series developed from it which ran until the mid-1970s.

Cole's performance 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, although this 'framing device' could also be likened to the 'comic relief' interludes found in Shakespearian – and other – tragedies which somehow both enhance and make bearable the serious 'meat' of the drama.

Box Office

By December 1949 the film earned £93,600.^[1] Eventually, producer's receipts were £81,200 in the UK and £23,000 overseas.^[2] According to one account, this meant the film recorded a loss of £9,400.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Andrew Spicer, Sydney Box Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 210
^ ^a ^b Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 354.
^ "Kinematograph Year Book 1949". Kinematograph Publications. 1949.
^ Chapman p 354. Income is in terms of producer's share of receipts
^ ^a ^b Spicer, Andrew (April 2006). 'The Apple of Mr. Rank's Mercatorial Eye': Managing Director of Gainsborough Pictures. p. 110.
^ "Star Wins Dispute With Studio". The News. Adelaide. 5 November 1947. p. 4. Retrieved 16 June 2020 – via Trove.
^ "June Clyde Flies Here". The Mail. Adelaide. 14 February 1948. p. 2 (SUNDAY MAGAZINE). Retrieved 16 June 2020 – via Trove.