Contemporary Review
Contraband (1940)
Picture Show, May 18th, 1940
A centre spread in the magazine with lots of pictures
I'll try to scan the pictures in sometime, until then,
here are the words.
Warning:
Contains plot spoilers!
Made with the co-operation of the Admiralty and the Ministry
of Economic Warfare, this is the story of a hectic night in
London's
[wartime]
blackout, in which the captain of a neutral merchant ship finds
himself involved with a gang of spies who operate under cover
of a night club.
The Helvig is returning from America. Its master, Captain Andersen,
is cursing the War. Apart from losing time through zig-zagging
as a precaution against the Nazi habit of torpedoing neutral
ships without warning, further delay is occasioned by the operation
of the British Contraband Control, and the ship carries a perishable
cargo. In addition, he is intensely irritated by an attractive but
obstinat woman passenger, Mrs Sorensen, who flatly refuses to wear
her life-jacket. And it is Mrs Sorensen who leads him on his exciting
chase through London.
Valerie Hobson
as Mrs Sorensen
|
|
|
Conrad Veidt
as Captain Andersen
|
|
Officers of the British Contraband Control scrutinise the
ship's papers. They invite Captain Andersen to dine with
them and give him two shore passes, for himself and his mate.
|
When Andersen and Mr. Skold, the mate (Hay Petrie),
are ready, Andersen finds the passes are missing. So, he
discovers, are two passengers.
|
|
Andersen finds the passengers, Mrs. Sorensen and Mr. Padgeon
(Esmond Knight), on the London train. He determines to make them
return to the ship.
|
Andersen loses Pidgeon at Victoria, but trails Mrs. Sorensen
in the London black-out. They dine at the Danish restaurant kept
by Skold's brother.
[Also played by Hay Petrie]
|
Andersen goes with Mrs. Sorensen to her aunt's house.
Her aunt's secretary (Phoebe Kershaw) meets them.
They find themselves in the hands of three members of a band
of German spies. Andersen names them the Brothers Grimm.
|
The chief spy (Raymond Lovell) sees through Mrs. Sorensen's
means of destroying messages she is conveying, and Andersen
realises she is a British Naval Intelligence Agent.
|
|
Andersen and Mrs. Sorensen are tied up in the cellar of the
night club. He frees himself but has to leave Mrs. Sorensen
to hoodwink the third Brother Grimm (Peter Bull).
|
Anderson helps Mrs. Sorensen and Mr Pidgeon, who has also
been captured, to escape.
|
With some Danish friends, Andersen returns to the night club,
and after a hearty fight lays out the gang.
|
Reunion aboard the Helvig - with Andersen deciding that a troublesome
passenger may make a perfect wife.
|
Back to index
