| Life in Danger | |
| Director: | Terry Bishop |
| Producer: | Jack Parsons |
| Starring: | Derren Nesbitt Julie Hopkins |
| Editing: | John Trumper |
| Music: | William Davies |
| Studio: | Parroch Films |
| Distributor: | Butcher's Film Service |
| Runtime: | 62 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
Life in Danger is a 1959 British second feature[1] film directed by Terry Bishop and starring Derren Nesbitt and Julie Hopkins.[2]
Hazel Ashley, an emotionally unstable adolescent, meets a casual labourer and befriends him. At the same time, news comes that Miller, a convicted child murderer, has just escaped from a nearby lunatic asylum.
Hazel goes missing, and when local villagers led by Major Peters search for her, they find her in a barn with the labourer, whom they assume is the escaped killer. Peters shoots and wounds him. When the police arrive they report that Miller has previously surrendered himself.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This attempt at the familiar but always tricky subject of an average community shocked into violence by a threat to its ordinary existence – in this case an escaped criminal lunatic – has a tense opening and two mainly effective leading performances. Unfortunately realism soon takes second place to conventional thrills and a facile climax, and the supporting cast is for the most part unconvincing."[3]
Chibnall and McFarlane in The British 'B' Film call the film a "neat, unpretentious thriller".