Escape! 1930

Captain Matt Denant, Gerald du Maurier, is a former army officer who had been pursued by Germans during the war. He rides at a hunt and, though he enjoys the sport, he empathises with the fox who stands little chance against the hounds.

After a dinner in London, he decides to walk alone through a busy Hyde Park. Denant begins talking with a girl in the park, Mabel Poulton as The Girl in Hyde Park, who reveals herself to be a prostitute. Denant declines the woman’s proposition and continues on his walk. At that moment a plain-clothes officer confronts the woman and accuses her of harassing Denant. Denant protests her innocence, maintaining that she had committed no crime. He distracts the policeman, giving the woman time to escape. A scuffle ensues, and Denant punches the officer to the ground, who hits his head on a rail and dies. Denant is charged with manslaughter and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment at Dartmoor.

Two years later, Denant is part of a prison party working on the moor when heavy fog descends. Emboldened by his experiences in Germany, he resolves to escape in the mist. He passes the Warren House Inn, a remote country pub, and learns his disappearance has been reported. Narrowly evading the local constabulary, he finds himself back within a mile of the prison after two days. Exhausted, he rests in a country house bedroom, where the lady of the house, Edna Best, discovers him the next morning. Rather than report him, she gives him chocolate and a drink and allows him to shave. Showing sympathy for Denant as a gentleman, she helps him disguise himself in her husband’s fishing gear and clears a path out of the estate.

While fishing, he is approached by another gentleman, Horace Hodges as The Gentleman at Stream-side, who realises Denant’s identity and, reflecting on the case, offers him a cigar and a knowing wink. Denant later hijacks a motorcar from a picnicking party and asks two walkers for directions to Bovey. They tell a pursuing police officer that they did not suspect the man, partly because he appears to be a gentleman.

Overwhelmed by his ordeal, Denant reaches a quarry where he collapses from exhaustion. He is discovered again, but he evades the workers and makes his way into an upper-class home, where he is once more protected, this time by two girls named Dora and Grace. Dora, Madeleine Carroll, and Grace, Marie Ney, help him as best they can. Finally, he runs into the village church as the net closes in. The parson, Austin Trevor, distracts the surrounding policemen, but Denant refuses to betray his own sense of honor and surrenders. The vicar shakes Denant’s hand as he is led away, and the scene closes with a reflection on his noble, loyal act. In a final touch of earned reverence, the parson’s words linger: a noble martyrdom carried out in defense of his own integrity.

“fine” and “loyal” fellow who had committed a noble act of martyrdom.