Nowhere to Go 1958

Paul Gregory, a Canadian confidence trickster operating in London, targets a wealthy Canadian woman in Britain to sell her collection of valuable coins. After meeting her at an ice hockey match, he sets about winning her confidence until she is prepared to grant him legal control over the sale. He completes the deal without her knowledge, stores the money from the sale in a safe deposit box and then deliberately waits to be caught by the police. Gregory plans on receiving a five-year sentence, with time off for good behaviour, and then collecting his loot when he is released.

However, the judge makes an example of the uncooperative Gregory by sentencing him to ten years in prison. While incarcerated, Gregory pays his associate Victor Sloane to help him escape. Almost immediately, things begin to go wrong. Fearing arrest, he is unable to recover the money from the safe. Sloane demands all the money and threatens violence, and Gregory is forced to retaliate.

Gregory tries to procure assistance from his fellow criminals, calling upon an established code that exists among them. But when Sloane is found dead, having accidentally choked on his false teeth due to a gag that Gregory placed in his mouth, they refuse to offer him any assistance, as he is now too warm.

With the manhunt rapidly approaching, Gregory tries to escape with the help of Bridget Howard, a disillusioned ex-débutante and niece of a chief constable. She drives Gregory to a deserted cottage near her family’s rural home outside Brecon. While in hiding, he witnesses the police arrive to question Bridget, assumes the worst and flees again. Attempting to steal a farmer’s bicycle, he is shot in the shoulder. He drives away in a stolen lorry but crashes and loses consciousness, and he is found by another farmer. Bridget tells the police nothing as she waits in vain for Gregory at the cottage before walking into the distance.