| It’s dipsomania versus the death penalty in director Joseph Losey’s 11th-hour gallows thriller Time Without Pity (U.K., 1957).
All cold sweats, trembling hands and raging inner demons, Michael Redgrave’s turn as the estranged alcoholic father of the wrongly accused (Alec McCowen) is memorable enough. But add Leo McKern’s over-the-top portrayal of a guilty man cracking under pressure and you’ve got one hyperbolic melodrama that is essentially rooted in a conflict between two opposing characters, each vying to maintain his self-control.
In fact, Time Without Pity is so wound up with questions of culpability that "guilt" might just as well be listed as another character in the cast. As David Graham (Redgrave) bolts around London trying to find some shred of evidence that will exonerate his son, it becomes all too clear that he is trying to make up for perceived shortcomings in his role as a father. Meanwhile, Robert Stanford (McKern), whom we know has committed the murder for which Graham’s son will hang, struggles to keep a lid on his own conscience, giving him conniptions and a countenance to rival Macbeth’s.
Director Joseph Losey made Time Without Pity early in his career, before more celebrated oddities such as The Servant (1963) and Modesty Blaise (1966) – both with Dirk Bogarde – but while this film is much less outré than Losey’s later work, it still sees him pushing the limits of melodrama. In the process, he expounds upon the twisted dynamics of family in late-1950s England, probing into issues such as alcoholism, emotional repression, the changing face of the class system (McKern’s character is something of a self-made man), and the role of women in a society where men are impotent patriarchs.
Of course, Time Without Pity also offers a subtext on the illegitimacy of the death penalty – which wouldn’t be completely abolished in England until 1969. Interestingly, the scenario puts Graham at a severe disadvantage in his quest to exculpate his son – seems he was in rehab in the U.S. and has only recently learned of the boy’s imminent demise. This temporal limitation not only presents challenges for Losey in crafting a story that plays out in 24 hours, but also ramps up the tension for Graham, who must race against the clock if he wishes to save his son’s life. In the end, the film ekes every ounce of drama out of the situation, delivering a highly charged climax in which no one’s fate is certain.
The DVD of Time Without Pity comes with few extras, but the inclusion of Losey’s debut short film Pete Roleum and His Cousins (U.S., 1939), which looks at the varied uses of oil in contemporary society, is a boon for those who watch all old films with a heightened awareness of kitsch value. |
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