Max Von Sydow plays Salem (cool name), a man convicted of murder and who sneaks out of his asylum cell at night to take revenge on those who got him wrongly put away. Trevor Howard is the detective on the case.
This is a Swedish English language movie, despite a good cast the dialogue from some of the Scandinavian actors sounded a bit wooden, I think it would have been better either dubbed into English or have subtitles. Most of the film is set at night but it was plainly filmed during the day. Set during winter there is snow on the ground, this does make the film look very bleak, as does the howling wind and the looming asylum walls. Talking of which Salem's ability to escape and negotiate a 100 ft drop do stretch the imagination, and his stunt double sticks out like a sore thumb. Nice to see Gretchen Franklin amongst the cast, she played Ethel in the long running BBC soap "Eastenders".
I recorded a screening of this movie on British TV, the print quality was poor, However it did add to the bleakness. I found the film to be long and slow in places, it does build to a nail biting end but the conclusion is almost comical. I liked the story line, it is a dark and suspenseful thriller, a bit of a curiosity but ultimately it has flaws which let it down somewhat.