A young petty criminal called Jackie Knowles (Richard Attenborough) is sentenced to three years at Borstal for being the getaway driver in a botched raid on a jewelry store. At the time he was already on probation for a previous offence. Knowles plans to keep his head down and do his time in the hope he will get an early release. However, he soon becomes involved with a group of lads who are planning to escape and the devious and scheming Alfie Rawlings (Dirk Bogarde) persuades him to get involved by exploiting his anxieties that his girlfriend Kitty (Barbara Murray) is romantically involved with former Borstal boy Bill Foster (Jimmy Hanley). As the boys make their escape, Knowles coshes a guard with a table lamp and, after they have been quickly recaptured, he is told that the man he coshed is in a critical condition and will need a life saving operation and could die. Will Knowles end up facing a murder charge? Or should the man survive can the institution's progressively minded governor (Jack Warner) and Kitty help Jackie finish his sentence and come out of Borstal a reformed person?
This very Gainsborough, very Pinewood look at life in Borstal now seems very dated and very tame compared with tougher, grittier and more realistic depictions we have seen since. It is also rather indifferently directed and plodding in places, but one cannot deny that is extremely well acted all round by the stellar cast. Dirk Bogarde, in particular, is stand out as Jackie Knowles' scheming fellow Borstal Boy Alfie Rawlings who ruthlessly exploits his fears that his girlfriend Kitty has gone off with former inmate Bill Foster. The performances from Attenborough and Murray are sufficient to make us care about them and their predicament provides the emotional centre to the story and some suspense too. For instance, we see Foster taking Kitty out to dine and dancing and he later proposes marriage to her, but she doesn't reply and we are not sure as to whether she will abandon Jackie because, after all, he is going to be away in Borstal for quite some time. The impression that she might well have ditched Jackie is reinforced after Alfie produces a signed photo of her from Foster's belongings after he returns to Borstal to further his own ends. The tension picks up after Jackie has coshed the guard and we can imagine how he must feel inside with our pulses racing as we wait to find out if the fatally injured Borstal guard will recover or not. Jack Warner, in a refreshing change from playing police inspectors, is also noteworthy as the progressive Borstal governor. Other people to look out for in the supporting cast include Thora Hird, Alfie Bass and Patrick Holt. This was one of the handful of 'A' features that Montgomery Tully directed before he became relegated to making b-pics and shorts where he became one of Britain's most prolific film makers in that field. The film is also notable because it was shot in the 'independent frame' process, which blended studio sets with natural backgrounds. It was a short lived experiment, though, and was soon abandoned.
This very Gainsborough, very Pinewood look at life in Borstal now seems very dated and very tame compared with tougher, grittier and more realistic depictions we have seen since. It is also rather indifferently directed and plodding in places, but one cannot deny that is extremely well acted all round by the stellar cast. Dirk Bogarde, in particular, is stand out as Jackie Knowles' scheming fellow Borstal Boy Alfie Rawlings who ruthlessly exploits his fears that his girlfriend Kitty has gone off with former inmate Bill Foster. The performances from Attenborough and Murray are sufficient to make us care about them and their predicament provides the emotional centre to the story and some suspense too. For instance, we see Foster taking Kitty out to dine and dancing and he later proposes marriage to her, but she doesn't reply and we are not sure as to whether she will abandon Jackie because, after all, he is going to be away in Borstal for quite some time. The impression that she might well have ditched Jackie is reinforced after Alfie produces a signed photo of her from Foster's belongings after he returns to Borstal to further his own ends. The tension picks up after Jackie has coshed the guard and we can imagine how he must feel inside with our pulses racing as we wait to find out if the fatally injured Borstal guard will recover or not. Jack Warner, in a refreshing change from playing police inspectors, is also noteworthy as the progressive Borstal governor. Other people to look out for in the supporting cast include Thora Hird, Alfie Bass and Patrick Holt. This was one of the handful of 'A' features that Montgomery Tully directed before he became relegated to making b-pics and shorts where he became one of Britain's most prolific film makers in that field. The film is also notable because it was shot in the 'independent frame' process, which blended studio sets with natural backgrounds. It was a short lived experiment, though, and was soon abandoned.