Beautiful, moving film.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Film-Noir, the Brits didn't do Many but in this Case They did it with All of the Grim Nastiness that the Genre would be Defined. The Cracking Sparring with Impolite Darkly Humored Dialog is so Non-British that it Sent Shivers Up and Down the Spines of the Critics and the Unsuspecting Public.Post-War Cynicism and the Criminal Class was Against the Grain of the Recent Allied Victory for the Stiff Upper Lips and this one was Surely a Surreal Entertainment with Creepy Violence and Creepier Characters.Trevor Howard is Uncanny in His Beaten Down Naturalness and this was a Distinct and Dismal Portrayal of the Ex-RAF Hero that Discovered that Returning Home was not much of a Glory. Falling in with some Low-Life Black Marketeers He Soon Finds Himself at Odds with Some of the Activities, Namely Drug Smuggling. "I am a criminal, but not that type of criminal.".There are Many an Unsettling Scenes of Woman Bashing and Unsavory Situations that take this One to an All New Level. An Odd and Eerie Scene of Howard Seeking Refuge in a Country Home Finding Himself in a House of Horrors, the Film not only Shows a Female Shooting Her Boozer Husband, but Unloads All Six Shots at Her Seemingly Innocent Spouse. Brutal Stuff.The Camera Angles are Extremely Expressionistic with Mirrors Reflecting a Distorted Reality and there is Hardly a Shot that is Done Straight or Typical. It is a Filmed Universe of a World Gone Nuts. The Final Confrontation Displays more Diabolical Set-Ups and the Ending Never Cops Out.

A good deal of British film noir style suspense is generated in I BECAME A CRIMINAL (U.S.A. title: THEY MADE ME A FUGITIVE) starring TREVOR HOWARD as an ex-RAF pilot who becomes a bored civilian and falls in with a racketeering gang shortly after the end of WWII.GRIFFITH JONES is the sinister, rough and tough leader of the gang who decides to set Howard up for the murder of a policeman during an escape from the cops. Howard spends some time in prison before breaking out and going all out for revenge by returning to London for a confrontation with Jones' gang.While the story itself is nothing original, it's done with such style and flair for this kind of grim material, the B&W photography giving realistic glimpses of post-war London on the gritty side.SALLY GRAY is very effective as the woman who helps Howard and believes in his innocence. The supporting players register strongly as individual characters.The final shoot-out is a bit too frenzied for my taste, extending for quite awhile before the villains are disposed of. Despite this, the ending remains downbeat with just a glimmer of hope that some day Gray will be able to prove her man has been railroaded and is innocent of the murder charge for killing a policeman.Well worth viewing if you like suspenseful, brisk stories of this genre with dialog that is strong and forceful. While this bears no relation to the John Garfield film, THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL, its plot outline does bear a strong resemblance to the Burt Lancaster thriller, KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS with Joan Fontaine helping Lancaster elude the pursuing authorities while on the run.

A British noir as good as the definitive ones being turned out in the States by such consensus masters as Mann, Dassin, and Lewis, to name three. And what about that great ending that still leaves me flabbergasted. Three cheers for a British cinema that apparently was able to operate without the albatross of a Production Code and still not wreck the nation's moral fiber. Needless to say, those final few minutes would never have been allowed Stateside where the scales of justice always triumphed, no matter how the world really works. Then too, consider the household Howard stumbles into by accident, where the zoned out housewife is only too eager to perforate her boozy hubby. One look at that demented visage and she's a lot scarier than any of the professionals. No wonder Howard flees back to the safety of London's underworld. This may also be the cheapest electricity bill on record since the brightest sound-stage bulb checks in at about 60 watts—they don't call it "noir" for nothing. And keep an ear cocked for some of the snappiest dialogue this side of Dashiel Hammett, especially from that old crone Aggie, who, I shudder to think, might actually be somebody's grandmother.Not that everything is roses. Some of the set-ups operate only at a stretch. For example, Howard's aim with a milk bottle should have him pitching for the Yankees. And he does it with such casual flair, you'd never guess his life is on the line. Nonetheless, the movie's a real sleeper and should have been exported to our shores a lot sooner. I expect, that daring finale would have inspired our own filmmakers to greater sneaky lengths in subverting the dead hand of Hollywood censorship.

A year after his hit,"Brief Encounter," Trevor Howard turned to a British gangster film of the film noir genre.Falling in with a band of crooks, Howard wants out when he sees what they're really up to. The leader of the gang, Griffith Jones, has him framed for running over a police officer and the Howard character is sentenced to 15 years for manslaughter.The rest of the film deals with Howard breaking out of prison, after he is told that his girlfriend is now going with Griffith. Of course, Griffith's ex tells him all this.Griffith Jones's death scene is quite similar to that of Stephen Boyd in "Ben-Hur." The only difference is that the ending is not exactly what you want.Nevertheless, this is a taut thriller, one of the best of the film-noir genre.Sally Gray is Griffith's ex who comes to love Howard.