Waste of time

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Poor Benita Hulme is left on her honeymoon when her scientist husband has to return to London with important plans.However he doesn't have them as their dog put them in its basket. On the train he is drugged by spies,who discover he doesn't have them.The spies realise where the plans are and get him to telegram his wife. One of the gang goes to Scotland and for some unknown reason allows him to stay.He gives the house a thorough search but he cannot find the plans as she has hidden them. She manages to get on a train but the spy manages to catch up with her.There are some interesting shots of the train arriving at the original Euston. The husband makes his escape and meets his wife at their London. house.The gang get in .the final confrontation is laughable. Incidentally the first full length talkie appeared in1927'The first British talkies were made in 1929'

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.

I just watched this on the new DVD release ..."Ealing Rarities Collection - Vol: 9".It's another little gem in this excellent series. Each 2 disc set includes four movies...the others in this set being : "Meet Mr Lucifer", "Cheer Boys,Cheer" and "Whom the Gods Love".It's a really nice, crisp print, much of it shot on location. A real look back into 1931.To say that this was made only two years after the first talking picture, this movie has a really sharp quality in both picture and sound.The two leads are appealing, especially Benita Hume. A stagey plot ?...maybe?...but it's a lovely and entertaining glimpse back into a very different world....sadly, gone forever !

1931 wasn't exactly the year for fast paced popular entertainment from Britain or any other place and the smell of the greasepaint emanates from the script of this one but it still has a charge, particularly in heroine Benita Humes's flight from the heavy, who you can tell is up to no good. He wears a suit, has a mustache and smirks a lot. Fast cars on mountain roads, trains full of singing sailors and London open top buses.Director Elvey was doing some of his best work then and while this one can't compare with SALLY IN HER ALLEY or THE LODGER, it isn't disgraced in their company either.Hints of The THIN MAN.