Complete credited cast: | |||
Leslie Banks | ... | Bob Lawrence | |
Edna Best | ... | Jill Lawrence | |
Peter Lorre | ... | Abbott | |
Frank Vosper | ... | Ramon Levine | |
Hugh Wakefield | ... | Clive | |
Nova Pilbeam | ... | Betty Lawrence | |
Pierre Fresnay | ... | Louis Bernard | |
Cicely Oates | ... | Nurse Agnes | |
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D.A. Clarke-Smith | ... | Binstead (as D.A. Clarke Smith) |
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George Curzon | ... | Gibson |
While holidaying in Switzerland, Lawrence and his wife Jill are asked by a dying friend, Louis Bernard, to get information hidden in his room to the British Consulate. They get the information, but when they deny having it, their daughter Betty is kidnapped. It turns out that Louis was a Foreign Office spy and the information has to do with the assassination of a foreign dignitary. Having managed to trace his daughter's kidnappers back to London, Lawrence learns that the assassination will take place during a concert at the Albert Hall. It is left to Jill, however, to stop the assassination. Written by garykmcd
The tale deals with a marriage (Leslie Banks and Edna Best) and their daughter (Nova Pilbeam) on holiday in Saint Moritz , Switzerland . They are witnesses for the assassination of their friend Louis (Pierre Fresnay) , before giving them a message and then they become involved into a confuse and obscure international plot , concerning their abducting daughter .
The movie gets the seed in which later emerged many Hitchcock's suspense pictures . In fact , Alfred Hitchcock reverted back to the more familiar territory of a suspense/intrigue thriller after the lousy result in Walzes from Vienna (1934) . It has a typical theme of the suspense master : innocent people become caught up into a cobweb of intrigue . The film displays interesting issues and a good cast , as an excellent Peter Lorre in his first English role , he interprets a clever and uncanny villain . However , the plot isn't narrated in agility and it seems some forced . The film highlights are the following ones : the happenings at the Royal Albert Hall of London , the rescue of the kidnapped daughter in the Tabernacle of the Sun and the final showdown remembers the authentic events on riots in Sidney Street , year 1911 , where a lot of citizens died . At the time the general public loved it and obtained smash-hit . Hitchcock's remade in 1956 is considered much better and with more lavish setting and glimmer color , besides , being starred by James Stewart and Doris Day singing : Que sera , sera . Rated : Good but dated .