One of Losey's best British genre films, Time Without Pity is a tense thriller told largely in real time about a recovering alcoholic who has only has twenty-four hours to prove the innocence of his son, who has been sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend. Immediately deflecting the whodunit aspect of the plot by revealing the killer in the pre-credit sequence, Losey transforms the film into a furious and moving protest against capital punishment. Time was both the first feature since The Big Night for which Losey could receive a directorial screen credit using his real name and the film that launched his reputation in France as an emerging talent.