Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Film-Noir, the Brits didn't do Many but in this Case They did it with All of the Grim Nastiness that the Genre would be Defined. The Cracking Sparring with Impolite Darkly Humored Dialog is so Non-British that it Sent Shivers Up and Down the Spines of the Critics and the Unsuspecting Public.Post-War Cynicism and the Criminal Class was Against the Grain of the Recent Allied Victory for the Stiff Upper Lips and this one was Surely a Surreal Entertainment with Creepy Violence and Creepier Characters.Trevor Howard is Uncanny in His Beaten Down Naturalness and this was a Distinct and Dismal Portrayal of the Ex-RAF Hero that Discovered that Returning Home was not much of a Glory. Falling in with some Low-Life Black Marketeers He Soon Finds Himself at Odds with Some of the Activities, Namely Drug Smuggling. "I am a criminal, but not that type of criminal.".There are Many an Unsettling Scenes of Woman Bashing and Unsavory Situations that take this One to an All New Level. An Odd and Eerie Scene of Howard Seeking Refuge in a Country Home Finding Himself in a House of Horrors, the Film not only Shows a Female Shooting Her Boozer Husband, but Unloads All Six Shots at Her Seemingly Innocent Spouse. Brutal Stuff.The Camera Angles are Extremely Expressionistic with Mirrors Reflecting a Distorted Reality and there is Hardly a Shot that is Done Straight or Typical. It is a Filmed Universe of a World Gone Nuts. The Final Confrontation Displays more Diabolical Set-Ups and the Ending Never Cops Out.

A good deal of British film noir style suspense is generated in I BECAME A CRIMINAL (U.S.A. title: THEY MADE ME A FUGITIVE) starring TREVOR HOWARD as an ex-RAF pilot who becomes a bored civilian and falls in with a racketeering gang shortly after the end of WWII.GRIFFITH JONES is the sinister, rough and tough leader of the gang who decides to set Howard up for the murder of a policeman during an escape from the cops. Howard spends some time in prison before breaking out and going all out for revenge by returning to London for a confrontation with Jones' gang.While the story itself is nothing original, it's done with such style and flair for this kind of grim material, the B&W photography giving realistic glimpses of post-war London on the gritty side.SALLY GRAY is very effective as the woman who helps Howard and believes in his innocence. The supporting players register strongly as individual characters.The final shoot-out is a bit too frenzied for my taste, extending for quite awhile before the villains are disposed of. Despite this, the ending remains downbeat with just a glimmer of hope that some day Gray will be able to prove her man has been railroaded and is innocent of the murder charge for killing a policeman.Well worth viewing if you like suspenseful, brisk stories of this genre with dialog that is strong and forceful. While this bears no relation to the John Garfield film, THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL, its plot outline does bear a strong resemblance to the Burt Lancaster thriller, KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS with Joan Fontaine helping Lancaster elude the pursuing authorities while on the run.

What a tight, smart movie. The only criticism I can really level at it is that it's not as good as "The Third Man," and that's only because it doesn't have the gravitas of the unconscionable criminality of Harry Lime.It does have Trevor Howard, as one of the bad guys this time. His riveting performance as a minor-league crook is matched by Griffith Jones's as a major-league mobster. Sally Gray turns in a strong performance too as the femme fatale who, at one point, takes a beating that she withstands stoically until a girlfriend cleans her up and, finally, gives her a cup of tea. It may be that kindness, or perhaps the hot tea on her split lip, you don't know, but Gray breaks down at last and you realize what the beating has done to her.The pace is swift, but not rushed. Extraneous but fascinating scenes are included—scenes which lead nowhere-- particularly the homicidal lisping woman and her drunken husband who shelter fugitive Trevor Howard in their house for brief but very creepy period.Every frame is composed with extraordinary care, especially in the climactic scene in the funeral parlor, a scene that reminded me of nothing so much as "Cabinet of Doctor Caligari." There's hardly a right angle in it. The chiaroscuro photography by Otto Heller ("Alfie," "Victim," "Peeping Tom," etc. etc.) is only enhanced by editing that's almost as whip-crack as the dialog.And as for that superb dialog… film noir movies typically have wisecrack lines, but this Noel Langley screenplay is brilliantly terse—in league with Chandler's work. If any character had two sentences in a row, I didn't notice. It's all lickety-split exchanges, and every line adds definition or motivation to the character speaking.A personal note: This is the only film I've ever watched which, after it finished, I immediately started it over and watched it again from the beginning. It was that rich, that engaging, and that satisfying.

The truth of the matter is that they did a bang-up job in emulating American noir and gangster type films. Why not, the American stuff was going great guns on that side of the pond.This was pretty heavy stuff for 1947. References to cocaine, brutality towards women, and such goodies are noticeable here. Also noticeable is the noir type anti-hero magnificently portrayed by Trevor Howard, and lots and I do mean lots of shadows.A rooftop scene was undoubtedly the prototype and inspiration for later movies such as To Catch A Thief.Don't confuse this with the earlier Hollywood movie, They Made Me A Criminal, which featured John Grfield and the Dead End Kids. There's no similarity between those two films.