It's an early film from Basil Dean, one of the first for his ARP company which eventually became Ealing, and also one of the young John "Paddy" Carstairs first credited efforts. Apart from the young and unrecognisable Jack Lambert most of the actors involved stayed firmly in the background in their future careers, although Mary Astor lookalike Benita Hume was in a few good potboilers later in Hollywood. The leading man in here Peter Hannen died a short while after making this and his second film, after a two month illness.
Simple plot: government scientist type man with some Plans gets married and goes on honeymoon, baddies try to get The Plans from him through subterfuge and kidnapping, and later from his wife. What a rotten honeymoon! An interesting and irritating cat and mouse chase forms the main part of the film – interesting because of slick if primitive camera-work, some of it on location, and a nippy script. And irritating because I felt I wanted to sock the ungentlemanly dastard Joseph Calleia lookalike Harold Huth on the jaw for his tenacious temerity in stalking the lady so closely. Like Hitchcock's Blackmail it has partially synchronised sound, meaning there's a few sections of mysterious silences or odd random noises, people talking in silent asides etc. The briefly heard footsteps in the night of the title now sound more like innocuous soundtrack clicks. A fight scene at the climax which is again portrayed with nice camera-work is unfortunately mirth-inducing in its enactment, while the end is farcical borderline embarrassing but mercifully swift so stay with it to find out who gets The Plans! Overall, at 65 minutes long a nice little olde film in good condition showing much promise to come and with many nice touches I enjoyed and many of which I enjoyed for all the right reasons.
Simple plot: government scientist type man with some Plans gets married and goes on honeymoon, baddies try to get The Plans from him through subterfuge and kidnapping, and later from his wife. What a rotten honeymoon! An interesting and irritating cat and mouse chase forms the main part of the film – interesting because of slick if primitive camera-work, some of it on location, and a nippy script. And irritating because I felt I wanted to sock the ungentlemanly dastard Joseph Calleia lookalike Harold Huth on the jaw for his tenacious temerity in stalking the lady so closely. Like Hitchcock's Blackmail it has partially synchronised sound, meaning there's a few sections of mysterious silences or odd random noises, people talking in silent asides etc. The briefly heard footsteps in the night of the title now sound more like innocuous soundtrack clicks. A fight scene at the climax which is again portrayed with nice camera-work is unfortunately mirth-inducing in its enactment, while the end is farcical borderline embarrassing but mercifully swift so stay with it to find out who gets The Plans! Overall, at 65 minutes long a nice little olde film in good condition showing much promise to come and with many nice touches I enjoyed and many of which I enjoyed for all the right reasons.
