Tuesday, 18 February 2020

I See A Dark Stranger (1946 Frank Launder)

Written by Launder and Gilliat, and Wolfgang Wilhelm.

Deborah Kerr plays a naive and stubborn Irish girl who so hates the British she starts to work for a German spy (in slightly random casting, played by Raymond Huntley). Their mission, to break free another spy with important invasion information. On leave soldier Trevor Howard gets caught up in it, ends up on the run with her to the Isle of Man and Ireland.

It's in the Hitchcock vein (they co-wrote The 39 Steps), though not in the same league, with some quite unlikely turns of events, but featuring some good comic moments with a funeral procession of smugglers, a randy and inept Captain (Garry Marsh) and a slapstick punch-up in a bathroom. Favourite moment though was woman on train pulling the most extraordinary expressions - then we see she's reading a book on eye exercises.

David Tomlinson, Katie Johnson and Joan Hickson appear.

We had - of course - seen Deborah younger in both Blimp and Major Barbara.

Photographed by Wilkie Cooper, music by William Alwyn.

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