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This is one of the rare British films that really capture the attitude as well as the shadowy style of American film noir. Trevor Howard stars as Clem, an ex-serviceman bored with civilian life who joins a gang of black marketeers for excitement and money. When he stands up to his sadistic boss Narcy (Griffith Jones), he finds himself the patsy for a senseless murder, and the film develops an edge of desperation and doom as the once jovial heist man becomes bitter and vengeful. When Clem breaks out of prison and a countrywide manhunt fails to stop his journey to London, he becomes (in the best noir tradition) the scapegoat for crimes committed along his escape route. A terrified Narcy goes on a rampage, torturing and murdering to cover up his complicity in the cop killing. Director Alberto Cavalcanti (Nicholas Nickleby) creates a suitably seedy atmosphere of shadowy alleys, foggy waterfront dives, and claustrophobic underground clubs, and matches the dark urban underworld setting with taut direction and tight editing. Howard delivers one of his best performances as the hate-driven criminal wrapped up in emotional scar tissue, a shadow of his former self seeping out in quiet moments. This hard-edged and unexpectedly violent thriller is one of the most impressive and understated British crime films. --Sean Axmaker

Alberto Cavalcanti (Nicholas Nickleby, Dead of Night), one of the key figures in French and British cinema for several decades, turns his sights on the London underworld in the engrossing BritNoir gangland drama They Made Me a Fugitive. Set in the unsettled postwar England where crime is on the upsurge, Fugitive is a suspenseful genre film which uses the picturesque Soho district as background to brilliant effect. The brooding and atmospheric cinematography of cameraman Otto Heller (Alfie, Funeral in Berlin) is in the noir visual tradition, while the film's authenticity is due to the director's command of documentary technique,. The London pubs, alleys and back bedrooms turn into the poetry of urban realism. Also evident is Cavalcanti's deep understanding of the troubled characters, well drawn in the script by noted playwright Noel Langley, the screenwriter of The Wizard of OZ. Trevor Howard (Brief Encounter, The Third Man) gives one of his greatest performances as Clem, an ex-serviceman who is fed up after the War and drawn to the excitement of black-marketeering. His psychopathic sadistic gang boss, Narcy (Griffith Jones), betrays him when he refuses to deal in drugs, and the story becomes a breathtaking tale of revenge. The complex ending of They Made Me a Fugitive