A woman is killed in Soho in London’s West End, and Robert Pitt (an overacting André Morell), a prominent member of the Civil Service, is arrested for her murder.
He is duly tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. It is then that he declares emphatically, “They can’t hang me!”
It sounds like an idle, desperate boast, but a few days later, it becomes clear to the police that the enigmatic and mysterious Pitt may mean what he says because he is in possession of top-secret information and promises to reveal the identity of a foreign agent named Lyonidas (who is wanted by MI5) in return for his freedom.
His offer is turned down, but later he reveals that an attempt will be made to steal secret equipment from the Cherwell Atomic Research Station.
Inspector Brown (Terence Morgan) – an alert young Scotland Yard Special Branch security officer – and his colleague Newcombe (Anthony Oliver) immediately start investigating, but the theft is carried out nevertheless, and four scientists come under suspicion.
So does Pietr Revski (Guido Lorraine), a Pole and wartime RAF hero.
Revski tries to leave the country, but the police stop him and find the stolen equipment.
Brown and Newcombe then race to Cherwell and – by a trick – they expose one of the physicists as Lyonidas. He commits suicide, and Revski, who proves to be a dupe, is cleared.
Pitt – who presumably strangled the girl because she knew too much – goes to the gallows.
Released on 7 November 1955, this British Lion film is both wordy and involved – and the whole business is highly improbable – but a few lighthearted romantic touches and a spot of penultimate action, plus adequate technical presentation, just keep its end up.
Inspector Ralph Brown
Terence Morgan
Jill Wilson
Yolande Donlan
Robert Isaac Pitt
André Morell
Antonia Pitt
Ursula Howells
Inspector Newcombe
Anthony Oliver
Pietr Revski
Guido Lorraine
Harold
Reginald Beckwith
Wing Commander Riddle
Basil Dignam
Sir Robert Rosper
Raymond Rollett
Professor Robinson-Heston
Fred Johnson
Professor Karl Kopek
Arnold Marlé
Prison Governor
Mark Dignam
Assistant Commissioner
John Horsley
Eric Colter
Barry Lowe
Director
Val Guest