Powerful

Excellent but underrated film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I watched this because it is a product of the great Ealing Studio of West London, although it was released under the imprimis of both Ealing and MGM. Evidently Ealing and MGM had come to some sort of a working agreement. The movie is a complete departure from the quirkily distinctive films of Ealing's heyday - Man in the White Suit, Lavender Hill Mob, Whiskey Galore, The Ladykillers. All of those films had a distinctive and gentle take on the British national character. Nowhere to Go is a straightforward crime drama, and forgoes that unique Ealing flavor. For what it is it isn't bad. It's good to see Maggie Smith in one of her earliest roles, and Bernard Lee, who will always be remembered as "M" in the Bond movies. Paul Gregory for me is rather wooden. However, there a few too incredulities in the plot, and the ending is a disappointment. The earlier Ealing movies always put a sense of closure on things. This movie just sort of stops, in what seems to be a gesture toward nihilism.

The other reviews here which seem mainly to originate in the US/Canada and other countries far from England seem to qualify this movie as the "Real Deal" and compare it favorably with more established gritty crime dramas around the same period. I have to beg to differ. The ploy of casting a Hollywood B-Lister in the lead to increase chances of a release in the US gives such hybrids an uneven texture. The very premise of the suave thief, the jail break, the loot in the vault (the McGuffin here), the double cross, the party girl to help him works believably in New York or Boston or Chicago but falls flat in London, especially since they use so many London tourist landmarks to "prove" it's real. Nader does his best and Bernard Lee gave a nice turn as a turncoat friend, but Maggie Smith's part is terribly underwritten (possibly because the misogynistic Kenneth Tynan was co-writer...)and she is little more than a cipher, looking vague and a little lost and speaking in a tiny voice.I'm British born and grew up in the period this was made - it's a dud.The only bright spot was Harry H. Corbett (pre-Steptoe) in a too brief cameo as a gang boss

George Nader has "Nowhere to Go" in this 1958 British film that also serves as the debut for a virtually unrecognizable Maggie Smith. Nader plays Paul Gregory, a Canadian con man in London who befriends an old woman (silent screen star Bessie Love) and winds up stealing her valuable coin collection. He's blatant about it, knowing that he will serve a term in prison, but he'll get the money on release. He escapes early and finds that getting his hands on the money isn't going to be easy. His partner becomes greedy, there's an accidental death, and Gregory is forced to go on the run.Kenneth Tynan and director Seth Holt co-wrote this tight script, and Holt keeps the action going and the tension and frustration building as Gregory runs out of options to get a hold of his money. The production is very good-looking as well.Handsome George Nader was a Hollywood male starlet who wound up playing Ellery Queen on television, as well as starring in two other series and doing guest appearances before concentrating on a career in German film as kind of a James Coburn type. The rumor has persisted for years that Confidential magazine was ready to publish a story on Rock Hudson's homosexuality and traded that story with Universal Studios for one about Nader instead. This rumor emerged again when Hudson died, and left money to Nader in his will. If true, Universal obviously felt Hudson was going to be more important to them. That became a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it was perhaps correct. The sad thing is that a story like that mattered."Nowhere to Go" is well worth seeing.

If this film had been made in 1950s France by directors named Clouzot or Melville, this Ealing production would be a regular on the revival circuit and in film school classrooms. Sadly, it's a completely unheralded film. Directed expertly by Seth Holt, who co-wrote the film with critic Kenneth Tynan, the film features an on-his-way-to-Europe George Nader as an American con man in London, looking to score by stealing a valuable coin collection (the owner is played by American expatriate and silent film star Bessie Love). His companion in crime is the docile but dangerous Bernard Lee, and there are double crosses and dirty dealings aplenty. The star of the film is Paul Beeson's amazing cinematography, always artistic but never too showy. Beeson also did sterling work for Ealing's The Shiralee (1957), and it's hard to understand how his career ended up on Harry Alan Towers scrap-heap. Dizzy Reece's outstanding jazz score (his only film work) fits the story like a glove and Maggie Smith makes her film debut as Nader's love interest. This is a great film and a true work of art.