My Brother's Keeper (1948)

Too many fans seem to be blown away

So much average

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Surely not you say.However before he was resurrected to play George Dixon,Warner often played villains as in this film.On the run from prison with a rather anaemic looking George Cole.He ends up commuting murder and quite happy to let poor George pay for it.There is a fairly exciting pursuit over the countryside.The finale is a sort of Cody Jarrett moment.Knowing that he is walking into a minefield he continues till he is blown up in the presence of his wife.David Tomlinaon in an early role as a journalist who is pressured into use his honeymoon to track down Warner.Bit like His Girl Friday.Anyway immortality was a waiting Warner.

Before becoming PC George Dixon in 1950 Jack Warner tried his hand at the other side of the law notably in Hue And Cry and this trite effort which clearly gave Stanley Kramer the idea for The Defiant Ones some years later. This is neither one thing nor the other with the two escaped prisoners- Warner and a young and callow George Cole - intercut with unconvincing reporter David Tomlinson more or less abandoning his honeymoon to cover the story at the insistence of his editor Raymond Lovell. It's another benefit for the usual suspects with a heavily disguised Bill Owen, Maurice Denham, Wilfrid Hyde White, Beatrice Varley, Jane Hylton and just about everyone else who wasn't working. Barely watchable.

In so many ways this is a fine all round film, which is only let down somewhat by the unnecessary comedic element of the young newspaper reporter (David Tomlinson) accompanied by his new bride (Yvonne Owen), on their honeymoon, covering the man hunt for the two escaped prisoners. The inclusion of this improbable and forced attempt at humour simply jars within the context of the whole film. That great character actor, Jack Warner, is excellent in the lead role, playing against type. He is ably supported by a young George Cole, and the ever dependable Jane Hylton. The film also has a lively pace about it, and is well staged, with the outdoor locations lending a good balance to the proceedings. It's a film that doesn't seem to be widely available, but is certainly well worth tracking down, despite the inappropriate light-hearted interludes.

An interesting piece of casting, having Jack Warner playing the bad guy, but he is a good enough actor to pull it off. He plays a war hero George Martin, who with another convict, Willie Stannard, (George Cole) break loose from police custody, while handcuffed together. David Tomlinson as the young reporter, who is called in to work on the story. A film from another era, that is well worth watching.