| Gaolbreak | |
| Director: | Francis Searle |
| Music: | Johnny Gregory |
| Cinematography: | Ken Hodges |
| Editing: | Jim Connock |
| Studio: | Butcher's Film Service |
| Distributor: | Butcher's Film Distributors |
| Runtime: | 61 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
Gaolbreak is a 1962 British second feature[1] crime film directed by Francis Searle and starring Peter Reynolds, Avice Landone and Carol White.[2] The film was released as a supporting feature to Tiara Tahiti (1962).
A family of thieves plan a jewellery store robbery. One of them is the safecracking expert, and when he is arrested and jailed, they spring him from prison so he can take part in the job.
The film was made by Butcher's Film Service, and shot at Twickenham Studios in West London, and on location. The film's sets were designed by the art director Duncan Sutherland.
Monthly Film Bulletin said "Running true to the traditional formula of British crime-story second features, this is nevertheless well cast and crisply put over. Most of the characters are effectively drawn but the prison escape looks far too easy."[3]
Steve Chibnall wrote in British Crime Cinema: "The presence of a young Carol White ... cannot compensate for the film's flat and sluggish direction, a script that would be embarrassingly simplistic in a children's matinee and two of the least-threatening villains in screen history (a newsagent and his mum)."[4]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "This typically down-at-heel crime story from low-budget specialists Butcher's is spiced up by a subplot about an unwanted pregnancy. It features an early performance by Carol White, who found fame in Ken Loach's television play Cathy Come Home [1966] and his feature Poor Cow [1967]. Sadly, this tale has barely enough plot to make a TV episode, let alone keep a cinema audience happy, and seems stretched even at its one-hour running."[5]