Warn That Man

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Warn That Man
Warn That Man.jpg
Directed by Lawrence Huntington
Written byLawrence Huntington
Vernon Sylvaine
Based on Warn That Man! by Vernon Sylvaine
Produced by Warwick Ward
Starring Gordon Harker
Raymond Lovell
Jean Kent
Finlay Currie
Cinematography Günther Krampf
Edited by Flora Newton
Music by Charles Williams
Production
company
Distributed byPathé Pictures
Release date
  • 13 July 1943 (1943-07-13)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Warn That Man is a 1943 British comedy thriller film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Gordon Harker, Raymond Lovell and Finlay Currie. [1] [2] It was written by Huntington and Vernon Sylvaine based on the latter's 1941 play Warn That Man! which had run for ten months on the West End stage, with Harker reprising his original role. The film was made at Welwyn Studios, with sets designed by the art director Charles Gilbert.

Contents

The plot is similar to the later film The Eagle Has Landed (1976) which also concerns a plot to kidnap Winston Churchill from rural England.

Plot

At a country house during the Second World War, a German actor, who looks uncannily like a British peer, takes his place as part of a German attempt to kidnap the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, when he visits the estate. Unfortunately for their plans, the niece of the peer arrives unannounced, along with her RAF pilot fiancé, and two of his new friends, who had rescued him at sea when he was shot down.

Cast

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin called the film "exciting and most entertaining", adding: "Raymond Lovell, in the dual role of Lord Buckley and the German actor impersonating him, does a difficult job excellently, as do all the other members of the cast. The photography throughout the film is clever, and especially so in those parts where Raymond Lovell appears on the screen as the real and bogus Lord Buckley at the same time." [3]

Picture Show wrote: "If you can swallow the possiblity of the impersonation of the whole household of an English country house by Nazi spies you'll enjoy this hectic melodrama of a plot to kidnap the Prime Minister. ... Plenty of excitement, with cockney comedy by Gordon Harker." [4]

Leslie Halliwell said: "On the stage this must have been an effective comedy-thriller, but the film is stymied by stiff handling." [5]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Thriller thrills but can't overcome its unlikeliness." [6]

References

  1. ↑ "Warn That Man". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  2. ↑ "Warn That Man". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "Warn That Man". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 10 (109): 74. 1 January 1943 – via ProQuest.
  4. ↑ "Warn That Man". Picture Show . 48 (1226): 10. 18 December 1943. ProQuest   1879610972.
  5. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 1093. ISBN   0586088946.
  6. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 258. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.
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