Leslie Banks (John Barrington), Alastair Sim (Charles Dimble), John Mills (Lieutenant George Perry), Jeanne de Casalis (Mrs Barrington), Carla Lehmann (Helen Barrington), George Cole (Ronald Mittsby), Michael Wilding (Alan Trentley), Frank Cellier (John Forest), Muriel Aked (Miss Fernery), Catherine Lacey (Mrs Stokes), Wally Patch (Evans), Muriel George (Mrs Trim), Hay Petrie (Dr Truscott), Sydney Tafler (RAF man), Peter Gawthorne (senior RAF officer), Arthur Hambling (Scotland Yard man), Roddy Hughes (new German agent at agency), Charles Rolfe (piano tuner), (Ben Williams (fisherman rescuer), Brefni O'Rorke (police inspector), Annie Esmond (bazaar parcel lady).
Director: ANTHONY ASQUITH. Screenplay: Anatole de Grunwald, J. O. C. Orton. Based on the stage play by Geoffrey Kerr. Photography: Jack Cox. Film editor: R. E. Dearing. Film cutting: Charles Saunders. Art director: Alex Vetchinsky. Music composed by Charles Williams. Music director: Louis Levy. Assistant director: Michael Anderson. Sound supervisor: B. C. Sewell. Sound recording: Sid Wiles and M. Hobbs. British Acoustic Sound System. Mr Asquith's services were obtained by arrangement with Paramount British. Producer: Edward Black. Executive producer: Maurice Ostrer.
A Gainsborough Picture, released in the U.K. by General Film Distributors, 6 September 1941; in Australia by G-B-D, 29 October 1942; in the U.S.A. by J. Arthur Rank. Made at Lime Grove Studios. Registered: August 1941. "A" certificate. 90 minutes. No New York opening. U.S. release title: Bombsight Stolen.
SYNOPSIS: Spies plan to kidnap the inventor of a bomb-sight.
NOTES: Film debut of George Cole.
COMMENT: Well above average spy melodrama with a really stunning climax. Very slow to get moving but the plot, once it starts, really engages the attention.
Asquith's direction is never less than highly competent, and he has drawn some splendid performances from a remarkably skillful group of actors who keep us guessing right up to the climax as to the actual identity of the spy.
And even when the player concerned finally shows his colors, we still expect to find that he is actually a counterspy.
Yes, the final action sequences are well worth waiting for. They're staged with an absolutely brilliant finesse that was so much admired by Orson Welles that he copied the idea in "The Lady from Shanghai" (1948).
Did Orson's super-charged version do it better? I don't think so. And in the Welles film, it's one of the support players (Glenn Anders) who walks away with the acting honors. In this film, it's hard to choose between John Mills, Alastair Sim, George Cole and Michael Wilding. All of them show sufficient quirks to qualify.
Appealing support is provided by Jeanne de Casalis as a typical aristocratic eccentric, the lovely Carla Lehmann as the love interest, Frank Cellier as the cabinet minister, and Wally Patch as the obliging Evans.
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