I like Losey's films quite a bit - well The Servant in particular. This film is no Servant . It is a tour de force of overacting, particularly Leo McKern. I don't think I have ever seen such an over the top performance by anyone in anything. It really does him and the film no favours. Michael Redgrave acquits himself quite well but it must have been a thankless task holding on with McKern's histrionics. Ann Todd is the epitome of British middle-class angst and is very annoying for being so. I chose to watch this because it was a Losey film but it disappoints me in every way. It makes very little sense and could have done with much tighter editing and control over the actors' performances.

Leo McKern's performance is way over the top, with steam coming out of his ears virtually every second he's on screen. It confounds me that the police don't suspect this totally unhinged man. What is supposed to be a dark drama is driven to the realm of high comedy by McKern's performance. I'm surprised he ever got an acting job again.And the viewer is also meant to believe that Redgrave's character - pathetic with a drunken demeanor - has convinced the other characters of his son's innocence? Yeah, right.The whole movie is driven by "there's something that's been overlooked", when the police should have found the key piece of evidence in the first place.The ending is just as ridiculous. It easily assumes that if a man kills another man he therefore must have been responsible for the earlier murder too. The phone call is made, the execution is halted - on this assumption.I guess kudos should be given for the movie's atmosphere, but there are too many holes and silly melodramatics.Ernest Clark (Loftus from TV's "Doctor In The House") has a cameo appearance.

An unfairly overlooked movie by highly talented Losey.a noir,noir,film,often desperate ;the movie seems governed by the rhythm of the clocks,their infernal ticking (even Big Ben joins in).The ticking obsesses the unfortunate father David ,arriving in England after living in Canada.He has found his son sentenced to death ;and there's only one day left.A race against time begins .The young man seems indifferent at first sight;he resents his father being here ,accusing him of having left him on his own,and he does not feel like living anymore .Should he die tomorrow,he does not care .David knows he would never be able to get over it ;distraught,he begins a difficult investigation (sometimes a bit implausible).A smart but very cruel ending tends to indicate that love is the strongest after all.Time without pity indeed.Well acted by Redgrave and the others

Rather hysterical but engrossing and very well-acted melodrama (particularly by Michael Redgrave, a BAFTA nominee, and Leo McKern), ostensibly a murder mystery but with a manifest position against capital punishment.Interestingly, the culprit is known from the very beginning but, saddled with an alcoholic hero, one is never sure whether he'll be able to prove his son's innocence of murder; the denouement, then, is terrific - as unexpected as it is ironic. Losey's expressionist style (aided by Freddie Francis's chiaroscuro cinematography) is in full sway here: actually, according to film critic Gerard Legrand - writing in "The Movie" - this was the film were the director really came into his own; I can't vouch for that myself since I have yet to watch three important films he made earlier i.e. THE PROWLER (1951) and M (1951), both Hollywood productions, and THE SLEEPING TIGER (1954), Losey's first effort following his relocation to Britain.It's undeniably a powerful film though relatively verbose (it was adapted from a play by Emlyn Williams); like I said, Losey drives his actors to fever pitch and he has chosen a most capable cast - including Ann Todd, Alec McCowen, Peter Cushing, Renee' Houston, Lois Maxwell, Joan Plowright, Peter Copley and Richard Wordsworth! The only false note throughout, perhaps, is to be found in the score by Tristram Cary - which is so over-the-top that, at times, it even drowns out the dialogue!