Escape from Broadmoor

Escape from Broadmoor is a 1948 British second feature ('B')^[1] short film directed and written by John Gilling and starring Victoria Hopper, John Stuart and John Le Mesurier, in one of his earliest screen appearances.^[2] A man escapes from an asylum and is hunted down by police.

Escape from Broadmoor
Directed by	John Gilling
Screenplay by	John Gilling
Produced by	Harry Reynolds
Starring	John Stuart Victoria Hopper John Le Mesurier
Cinematography	Cyril Bristow
Edited by	Maurice Rootes
Distributed by	Grand National Pictures (British)
Release date	December 1948 (1948-12)
Running time	38 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The title is a reference to Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire. It was the last film appearance of Victoria Hopper who had been a prominent leading lady in the 1930s^{[citation needed]}.

Plot

An insane killer escapes from Broadmoor Hospital, and returns to the scene of a ten-year-old crime, where the ghost of a servant girl he killed is bent on revenge.

Cast

• Victoria Hopper as Susan
• John Stuart as Inspector Thornton
• John Le Mesurier as Langford/Pendicost
• Frank Hawkins as Roger Trent
• Antony Doonan as Jenkins
• T. Gilly Fenwick as Standing
• Blanche Fothergil as Mrs Midge
• William Douglas
• A. Sawford-Dye
• Elizabeth Howarth
• Pat Ryan

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This is a hackneyed story ... The film is a tedious and deplorably unimaginative production."^[3]

Chibnall and Macfarlaine, writing in The British 'B' Film, describe the film as "a fanciful melodrama ... interesting in the way it confronts the themes of loss, guilt, atonement, revenge and the survival of the spirit, that were preoccupations in a variety of post-war genres."^[1]