WILLIAM LUCAS MAKING 'THE BREAK' WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

Christina Gregg & William Lucas THE BREAK Year: 1962

The same year British beauty Christina Gregg played a schoolgirl told DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN, she was the twenty-something sister of a convict who made THE BREAK from a train...

And winds up with handful of eclectic characters that... as Quentin Tarantino attempted in HATEFUL EIGHT inspired by John Carpenter's classic THE THING... are all stuck together, here within a rural Bed and Breakfast: all with not only different personalities and perspectives but purpose, motivation and temperaments... Meanwhile the leading man is a sophisticated type: here a blocked author and, on the upside he quickly yet slowly finds kinship with the gorgeous Christina Gregg, but he's also being surreptitiously eyed by the most intriguing and perhaps crooked person onboard in CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN tutor Robert Urquhart as a wily-charming gumshoe insurance investigator...

The Boys of THE BREAK Rating: ****1/2

And so... so far we've spoiled plenty just by describing certain characters as THE BREAK is totally character and personality driven as the distinguished author, played by Tony Britton, has the strong and able aura of Humphrey Bogart when he'd become a solid cinematic hero...

While the escapee and Christina Gregg's big brother, William Lucas... with the deliciously rough name of Jocko... is like Bogie in his mean and nasty antagonist-of-Jimmy-Cagney years...

Thus there's something imperative, interesting and unique going on, pretty much at all times and around every corner — the biggest mistake is getting rid of one particularly addictive, entertaining bloke far too soon while making way too big a deal about random (or to play the caged Devil's advocate, strategic and necessary) killings/murders in a film that should act as tough as it looks, and feels...

William Lucas & Christina Gregg in THE BREAK

Even future STAR WARS general Eddie Byrne, as the shady middleman who'd set up the rudimentary escape and provided this hidden locale (that he runs) for brother and sister to leave their orphaned/abused past for possible freedom, loses his experienced shifty cool after our anti-hero turned straight-out villain loses even the trust/faith of little sis...

The latter preferring a safe future to a fierce, edgy present... As does the film itself — that still works within the intentionally claustrophobic setting; dialogue that's never stagey; and an 11th hour action sequence in a nearby salt mine as all things, inside or out, are filmed beyond capably by veteran director Lance Comfort: For like most British New Wave flicks, the acting (including a diamond-in-the-rough zealot-simpleton named Moses) is both feisty and laidback; acute, mellow, natural... Basically what the Americans would catch onto in the following decade — as the Brits' 1960's crime genre was our gritty renaissance 1970's.

Christina Gregg and William Lucas in THE BREAK 

Edwin Richfield (as Moses) and Christina Gregg in THE BREAK

Edwin Richfield (as Moses) and William Lucas in THE BREAK

Eddie Byrne, Christina Gregg and Tony Britton break in THE BREAK

 Christina Gregg as Sue Thomas in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

 Christina Gregg as Sue Thomas in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

 Christina Gregg as Sue Thomas in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK with William Lucas

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

Eddie Byrne in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

William Lucas in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

Tony Britton in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK with Tony Britton

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

Robert Urquhart, Tony Britton and Christina Gregg in THE BREAK

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK with Eddie Byrne

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK with William Lucas

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

Fantastic credit look for THE BREAK

 Directorial Credit for Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

Lance Comfort directs this truck chase with Tony Britton starring in THE BREAK

Good guy Tony Britton runs away from a killer truck in THE BREAK

Middleman villain Eddie Byrne searches for the good guy in THE BREAK

Opposite foes Tony Britton and William Lucas in THE BREAK

Dramatic moment between sis and bro Christina Gregg and William Lucas in The Break

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK with William Lucas

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK

Christina Gregg in Lance Comfort's THE BREAK with Tony Britton

Eddie Byrne and Gene Anderson in THE BREAK

William Lucas and Gene Anderson in THE BREAK

William Lucas n THE BREAK

William Lucas and CHRISTINA GREGG in THE BREAK