Rough Shoot (1953)

Rough Shoot (released in the U.S. as Shoot First) is a 1953 British spy thriller.

A U.S. Army colonel named Taine (Joel McCrea), stationed in England, is living the life of an English country gentleman albeit on a rather modest scale. He rents a shoot from a neighbouring farmer. He sees what he assumes to be a poacher. Taine has been assured that the local custom, when confronted by such a situation, is to give the poacher a load of buckshot in the seat of the pants to teach him a lesson. This is what Taine proceeds to do. He fires at the poacher. Strangely enough, after the shot, the poacher falls and doesn’t get up. When Taine wanders over to investigate he discovers to his horror that the man is dead.

What Taine doesn’t know is that at the exact moment he fired someone else fired as well.

Taine is pretty badly spooked. It would appear that he is now a murderer and they hang people for murder in England. He might get off with manslaughter but it would still be very unpleasant and would almost certainly mean spending some time in one of Her Majesty’s prisons. He doesn’t fancy that idea at all.

He waits until nightfall then goes to look for the body, presumably intending to conceal it.

Other people are looking for that body as well. The body in question belonged to a man named Reimann.

Taine’s wife (played by Evelyn Keyes) notices that her husband is behaving very strangely.

Taine also has a new acquaintance, Sandorski (Herbert Lom). Sandorski claims to be a retired Polish Army Colonel-Commandant and claims to be now working for the British Government on security matters. Sandorki lives in the local mental hospital so he’s obviously a harmless nut. Except that he isn’t.

Randall (Roland Culver) then arrives on the scene. He’s a proper British intelligence operative, obviously quite senior. He’s looking for Reimann. And he wants Taine’s help in dealing with a ticklish intelligence problem. The smart thing for Taine to do might be to tell Randall the whole truth but Taine is still badly spooked so he doesn’t.

Randall is interested in the activities of a man named Hiatt (Marius Goring), currently staying with Taine’s neighbours the Hassinghams.

There’s a mysterious rendezvous with an aircraft, assorted sinister spy types and a briefcase containing secret papers which serves as the primary McGuffin. There’s a risky plan to foil the foreign agents, a plan based largely on bluff, there’s some suspense on a train and a decent action finale in a waxworks. That risky plan becomes more risky when Scotland Yard starts blundering about.

The movie is based on Geoffrey Household’s novel A Rough Shoot. Household is best known as the author of the classic thriller Rogue Male (filmed by Fritz Lang as Man Hunt). Eric Ambler wrote the screenplay. That’s some heavy duty writing talent there. And a perfectly decent spy thriller plot.

This is a case where bringing in an American star for a British production works. The fact that Taine is an American, not entirely familiar with British laws and customs and not having friends and family in whom to confide, makes his actions more believable. And Joel McCrea gives a creditable performance as a man who is basically decent but badly out of his depth. Evelyn Keyes is fine. Marius Goring was always reliable, especially as a villain.

Herbert Lom could handle serious rôles and comic rôles with equal aplomb. Here he gives a semi-comic performance and it works since it makes it more believable that confiding in Sandorski does little to calm Taine’s anxieties. He has to trust Sandorski, he has no choice, but he isn’t happy about it. He still thinks Sandorski could be crazy. Lom of course is delightfully entertaining. As is Roland Culver.

Robert Parrish directed and does a solid job.

Unfortunately Rough Shoot is not available on DVD and doesn’t appear to have ever had a VHS release either. You can find it online without too much trouble.

This movie really deserves a proper DVD release (a Blu-Ray release might be too much to hope for). It’s absolutely typical of British thrillers of its era - well-constructed, professionally executed and with a fine cast. The British just had the knack for making these sorts of movies. Highly recommended.

I watched this movie on the strength of a very favourable review at Riding the High Country.