In order to rescue a Czechoslovak scientist and his daughter (James Harcourt, Margaret Lockwood) from the Nazis, British spy Dickie Randall (Rex Harrison) poses as a German officer in Berlin… Not a sequel to The Lady Vanishes (1938), but a thriller-comedy in the same vein, from the same screenwriters, and reuniting Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as the cricket-mad gentlemen who get caught up in the action. A slow build-up, but the second half of the movie is very entertaining, with a thrilling climax involving aerial trams on the Swiss border. Because of its timing, the film has a feeling of eerie relevance in spite of its fanciful set-up.
1940-Britain. 93 min. B/W. Produced by Edward Black. Directed by Carol Reed. Screenplay: Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder. Novel: Gordon Wellesley (“Report on a Fugitive”). Cinematography: Otto Kanturek. Cast: Rex Harrison (Dickie Randall/Gus Bennett), Margaret Lockwood (Anna Bomasch), Paul Henreid (Karl Marsen), Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Felix Aylmer.
Quote: “You know, if a woman ever loved you like you love yourself, it would be one of the great romances of history!” (Lockwood to Harrison)
