It zips along quickly, like most B productions, with little wasted motion and no time spent on incidental events or reality intrusions. It's a British crime thriller starring Esmond Knight and Lilli Palmer and was made in 1935, about the time Hitchcock was hitting his stride in the same arena.
You can't help wondering, as this thing rolls along in its complicated but uninspired way, like any cheap second feature starring Boston Blackie or Charlie Chan, what Hitchcock would have done with it. There's even a scene shot in an illegal casino in which one of the villains is eating a meal. And that's it. He just eats. All the scenes show about as much interest on the part of the participants as this one, as exciting as watching a barnacle clinging to a rock.
Lilli Palmer plays a slightly tarnished moll who falls for the hero and turns good. She's recognizable to those familiar with her later films only because her voice is the same. It's really strange. She was 21 when this was released and quite pretty. Ten or fifteen years later she was beautiful. Did she get a nose job, or what? Unless you have a taste for old-fashioned crime films with the undercover Scotland Yard agent finally trapping the cackling villain -- "Of course, you think I'm mad. I prefer to call it genius." -- you might better think about spending your time doing something other than this absolutely formulaic B film.
You can't help wondering, as this thing rolls along in its complicated but uninspired way, like any cheap second feature starring Boston Blackie or Charlie Chan, what Hitchcock would have done with it. There's even a scene shot in an illegal casino in which one of the villains is eating a meal. And that's it. He just eats. All the scenes show about as much interest on the part of the participants as this one, as exciting as watching a barnacle clinging to a rock.
Lilli Palmer plays a slightly tarnished moll who falls for the hero and turns good. She's recognizable to those familiar with her later films only because her voice is the same. It's really strange. She was 21 when this was released and quite pretty. Ten or fifteen years later she was beautiful. Did she get a nose job, or what? Unless you have a taste for old-fashioned crime films with the undercover Scotland Yard agent finally trapping the cackling villain -- "Of course, you think I'm mad. I prefer to call it genius." -- you might better think about spending your time doing something other than this absolutely formulaic B film.