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A cogent follow-up to the scoop of The Lady Vanishes, with the Hitchcock factor acknowledged in the warning note in the biscuit platter and elaborated in the climax with the téléphérique gliding over the Swiss border (for the benefit of James Bond, cp. Moonraker). The situation is swiftly stated—Hitler froths and pounds over a map of Europe, newsreel footage gives the fall of Austria and Czechoslovakia. In Prague the future of a scientist (James Harcourt) is discussed with British intelligence until the meeting is interrupted by the roar of approaching planes. ("Ours?" "No. Theirs.") His daughter (Margaret Lockwood) is sent off to a concentration camp but escapes with the help of a prisoner (Paul Henreid), who accompanies her to England. (Her new companion's true identity is revealed through a bit of Langian unreliable vision, appropriately staged at an optometrist's office.) Parallel infiltrations and disguises and "a sporting spirit," thus the mission in Berlin with the spy (Rex Harrison) who ditches jaunty tunes for Kommandant regalia, monocle and all. The charade is balanced carefully before German eyes, though the heroine is not too impressed with her savior's suavity: "If a woman ever loved you like you love yourself, it would be one of the romances of history." Suspense and humor leading up to the declaration of war, all of it receives Carol Reed's speed and lightness. Raffles and Bulldog Drummond are noted as models of craftiness and bravery, Mein Kampf meanwhile shares space at the train station with Gone With the Wind as mindless reading material for a long ride. A matter of bad manners, as Lubitsch would have it, it even gets Charters and Caldicott (Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne) to join the effort. "Not much of a life, a secret agent." "And the pay is bad, too, sir." With Felix Aylmer, Wyndham Goldie, Roland Culver, Eliot Makeham, Raymond Huntley, and Irene Handl. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |