Time Without Pity

Rating:
Summary: Gripping British Thriller
Review: "Time Without Pity", a tense British film noir, was directed by Joseph Losey, and released theatrically in 1957. An unsuccessful British author (Michael Redgrave) returns to England from Canada in a last-ditch effort to save his son from the gallows. His son's girlfriend was murdered. The son was arrested, tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. He will be hanged within 24 hours, unless new evidence can be found to put the guilty verdict in doubt. Racing against time, Mr. Redgrave confronts various people connected to his son, in a desperate attempt to find the truth before his son is executed. His efforts are complicated by his own battle with alcoholism, and the disdain of the son he is trying to save.

While the whole cast is strong, Michael Redgrave gives a shattering performance that you will not forget. Leo McKern is also powerful as a sleazy auto dealer who--like other characters in this film--knows a lot more than he is willing to divulge. A young Joan Plowright is cast as a showgirl, and you will also see a "pre-Miss Moneypenny" Lois Maxwell as McKern's glamourous secretary. Peter Cushing is appropriately stoic as the lawyer who unsuccessfully defended the son.

The DVD exhibits a decent B & W picture--I found that I had to adjust the sound level a couple of times.

Whether you like old-fashioned thrillers, classic British cinema or the bravura performance of a great actor, "Time Without Pity" deserves your attention. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping British Thriller
Review: "Time Without Pity", a tense British film noir, was directed by Joseph Losey, and released theatrically in 1957. An unsuccessful British author (Michael Redgrave) returns to England from Canada in a last-ditch effort to save his son from the gallows. His son's girlfriend was murdered. The son was arrested, tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. He will be hanged within 24 hours, unless new evidence can be found to put the guilty verdict in doubt. Racing against time, Mr. Redgrave confronts various people connected to his son, in a desperate attempt to find the truth before his son is executed. His efforts are complicated by his own battle with alcoholism, and the disdain of the son he is trying to save.

While the whole cast is strong, Michael Redgrave gives a shattering performance that you will not forget. Leo McKern is also powerful as a sleazy auto dealer who--like other characters in this film--knows a lot more than he is willing to divulge. A young Joan Plowright is cast as a showgirl, and you will also see a "pre-Miss Moneypenny" Lois Maxwell as McKern's glamourous secretary. Peter Cushing is appropriately stoic as the lawyer who unsuccessfully defended the son.

The DVD exhibits a decent B & W picture--I found that I had to adjust the sound level a couple of times.

Whether you like old-fashioned thrillers, classic British cinema or the bravura performance of a great actor, "Time Without Pity" deserves your attention. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Solid early thriller from director Joseph Losey
Review: As the previous reviewer has pointed out, this is a compact thriller with a notable cast of then up-and-coming British stars and one of Michael Redgrave's best lead performances. What's most interesting is how little attention this DVD from Home Vision Entertainment has received since it was released last year. I suppose it's an indication of just how low director Joseph Losey's stock currently is, which is really a shame -- considering how highly regarded he was in the 1960s and 70s. I'd characterize Losey as an intellectual and socially conscious version of Alfred Hitchcock. Many of Losey's movies can be broadly classified as thrillers or films noir, but in all of them character development trumps plot (as in Redgrave's recovering alcoholic) and Losey always makes some point about wider social conditions (here the target is capital punishment). If you don't know Losey's work, then Time Without Pity is a great place to start.

HVE's visual transfer is first-rate -- like most of their British catalogue. Unlike their sister company Criterion, however, the sound always seems a little on the weak side. That's probably due in large part to the overall inferiority of British sound recording equipment in the 1950s. The only real surprise is that the movie is presented full-frame instead of letterbox. I always assumed that the British film industry had adopted the widescreen format by 1955 or 1956. But maybe Losey opted for the older format for its easier handling during on-location shooting (which there's a lot of in this movie).

The only extra is the totally bizarre promotional short for Standard Oil "Pete Roleum and His Cousins," a frenetic 16-minute homage to the many incarnations of oil. It's billed as Losey's first directorial effort, which is true. But surprisingly, HVE misses the point: The real genius behind this short was a completely wacko stop-motion animator from the silent days named Charles Bowers, who remains just about the only serious rival of Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien. (I suspect that Losey had very little to do with the conception or execution of this movie.) It's definitely worth a look, but be warned: It's missing the live narration that apparently accompanied the live showings at the 1939 World's Fair. Consequently, it doesn't make very much sense.

As for the main feature, this DVD is a sturdy treatment of the movie, especially since HVE has recently lowered the prices of most of their titles.