I'd heard about this for a long time - one of the last movies of Ealing, the directorial debut of Seth Holt, the film debut of Maggie Smith.
It's a striking work, clearly well directed - I'm surprised it took Holt a few more years to get his next feature. There's plenty of scenes with no dialogue following George Nader around. This was a great chance for Nader, who was a back up Jeff Chandler at Universal. He's fine... not great, but not bad. This film would have sung with a really good actor in the lead, like say Stanley Baker or Dirk Bogarde, but I like that Nader got his chance.
It's charming to see Maggie Smith as a young woman; her part isn't very big, she pops up at the beginning but then comes back in the third act.
Bernard Lee, M from the Bond movies, is Nader's fellow crim who helps the latter break out in a famous opening sequence. I also liked Bessie Love as the woman Nader cons.
The film felt ten to fifteen minutes too long. I wasn't quite sure why. Maybe that Smith disappeared then reappeared so the pay off of that relationship wasn't too satisfactory.
Gorgeously shot.
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