Cinema

Escapegoats

Kenneth Robinson

Paper Tiger Director: Ken Annakin Stars: David Niven, Ando, Toshiro Mifune, Hardy Kruger 'A' Odeon, Leicester Square (90 Minutes).

Breakout Director: Tom Gries Stars: Charles Bronson, Randy Quaid, Sheree North 'AA' Columbia (95 minutes).

In Paper Tiger David Niven plays a very English private tutor in a mythical Far Eastern country. He is also a pathological.liar. The boy he teaches is a son of the Japanese ambassador. And the man who doesn't believe his tall tales is a resident German reporter.

Both the Jap and the German are men of integrity. The Englishman, posing as `Major' Bradberry, is not And whatever you may think of the story, at least this situation makes it different from the way it would be treated in most of the schoolboy comics. It's a long time since I came across both a good German and a good Jap in cheap fiction.

The effect is unnerving. 1 don't think I'm too absurdly English, dammit, but when the boy is kidnapped and the tutor is dragged along too, it seems pretty nasty the way he is talked about behind his back. The German sneaks to the Jap that Bradberry is not the war-hero he pretends to be. But these insufferably nice men decide not to humiliate him in public. They feel that if this pathetic Englishman should return alive he must be allowed to continue his dishonest ways in peace.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the jungle, 'Major' Bradberry is being got at by the young boy. Wasn't he once a courageous soldier? Surely he would rather die bravely than live dishonourably? Bradberry cannot disappoint the boy. "We are in danger," he says. "The greater therefore should our courage be." In moments of stress he not only talks poetically, but also addresses the child as 'My Little Friend'. And for those who think they are not hearing correctly, this awful expression is echoed by an invisible jungle choir in a song by Sammy Cahn. And then, with an impetuous bound, Bradberry is off, escaping in a runaway car...

Why should I feel so indignant about the humiliation of Bradberry? I think it is because David Niven presents the character so well. He really is a master of his craft, however corny he is expected to be.

And while I'm being hyper-sensitive, let me say that 1 don't like the two flash-backs to violent battles in the second world war. Each one illustrates a fictitious story from Bradberry about his war-time heroism, and each is meant to be a parody of a war film, But this is not

a time to provoke laughter with shots of mangled, dying bodies.

Incidentally. one serious moment was lost to me because Roy Budd's musical score slipped away from the oriental into what sounded like the 'Song of the Volga Boatmen'. I don't think there was any political significance in this. I imagine it is difficult to write hour upon hour of new film music without hitting on a well-known theme. There is even a touch of If You Were The Only Girl In The World' in the Mexican music of Breakout. This occurs as a man wrongfully convicted of a crime marches into his prison in Santiago. It might have seemed more appropriate later on, when the man is allowed a conjugal visit.

But don't think this is just another prison weepie, with little wifie waiting tearfully for thirty years. Most of the action takes place outside the prison as the wife organises ways of getting her husband across the border, where he will be safe from recapture.

This is a fantastically ingenious film. But you really have to work at it. By the time the story has got going there are so many possible hazards between the prisoner and his rescuers that what looks like a simple escape by helicopter has you asking questions all the time.

Will the inexperienced pilot (Charles Bronson) manage to land the aircraft he flies so unsteadily? Will the prisoner be well enough to reach it? Will another prisoner be lifted out by mistake? And wouldn't that be a good thing, as Mr Bronson has fallen in love with the prisoner's wife? And anyway, won't the prison authorities be ready to stop the escape as they have done in the past?

I won't tell you what happens. Merely that the director uses every kind of trick to keep you in amused suspense. As at the moment when Charles Bronson is fighting on an aircraft runway with the villain of the piece. One of them is struck by the propellor of a passing plane and pieces of body are flung all over the landscape. I won't tell you which body it was. The audience cheered when they knew.

This cheering of violent actions is, you will remember from Death Wish, a tendency that amateur psychiatrists have asked us to worry about. But I don't think we need to worry about it here. This is a very moral film. Right and goodness triumph in a way that might leave you feeling pretty nauseated — simply because you were hoping that the wrong man would get the girl. It's a film that I recommend for its extremely clever plot; for its leisurely direction by Tom Gries, who finds time to pause on some of his scenes and to find lingering enjoyment in them, and for the skilful acting of Charles Bronson, Randy Quaid and Sheree North. These players create a feeling of great good humour, even when bodies are disintegrating around them.

You may like to know that the violence in the film is of the latest family-show kind. It is never detailed enough to sicken you. It simply makes you curious about how it is done.