A vanity project from company logo (LHP over a lion*) to end credits, this Lawrence Harvey Production has the film company's eponymous star nobly suffering in a castle dungeon, a prisoner awaiting death by firing squad after a guard is killed during an anti-government bank robbery. Even in this nameless totalitarian state, Harvey could save himself if he’d give up the location of the hidden cash, but that’s unlikely. Instead, kid brother Robert Walker Jr. plans a daring rescue involving the old prisoner-in-priest’s-clothing switcheroo. But it’s all complicated by Walker coveting big brother’s stolen stake & loyal girlfriend, Sarah Miles. Harvey lays on chilly atmosphere and arty angles with a trowel, obliged by cinematographer Oswald Morris in high contrast b&w shots so frame-worthy, they cancel each other out. Same problem on the over-emotive acting & Harvey’s underwhelming directing chops. (Some of the action scenes turn inadvertently risible.) Beware good intentions!
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *There was no followup film for LHP after this, though Harvey directed two more times, finishing A DANDY IN ASPIC/’68 after director Anthony Mann died mid-shoot, and in the posthumously released horror WELCOME TO ARROW BEACH/’74 (neither seen here).
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