CONTRABAND

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 95, 18 April 1941, Page 16

CONTRABAND

(M-G-M)

[JDESPITE its title, Contraband, I should warn you, is not concerned with the Senior, so much as the Secret Service. It is. therefore. ipso facto. a

thriller. And all thrillers, whether detective stories or spy films, are built round the idea that right must prevail. Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson, the former a bewildered neutral sea-captain, Valerie a British Secret Service agent must, it (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) follows, get the better of the German spies. But they do it with so many differences that we are almost persuaded that the plot is a new one, Of course, when Veidt, tied to Miss Hobson in a cellar, frees himself from his bonds by the simple expedient of wriggling, and when she does*the same, I do think the otherwise methodical German spies could have been allowed to put more than just one knot in the rope -though, in general, the film is good enough to divert one’s attention from such minor mistakes, I was hard put to it to notice that particular one, because my attention was so often engrossed in contemplation of the scientific equipment in the spies’ headquarters, or else in Miss Hobson’s choice legs, which came in for a good deal of the camera at that stage. Contraband is different from most other films of its type in that the villain is not too villainous, the propaganda is not too laboured, the hero (Conrad Veidt) is a Dane and likes his own race better than the British. But, above all, there are no shots of ultra-sophisticated society or of glamorous and sinister wenches (being a British Secret Agent, Miss Hobson’s is, of course, good, clean glamour). The photography is realisti¢ -grey dawns, foul weather, even a good blackout — and the wisecracks, thank heaven, are well-spaced and funny. And even if you do go to the pictures to be entertained and not educated, there is something to learn from this film, Although we are only shown Contraband Control in progress during a few isolated shots towards the beginning, they are directed so vividly by Michael Powell that the impression of everlasting bustle, of the camaraderie of the more noisy members of the "Silent Service" is clearly imprinted on the mind. Contraband has its flaws, like every picture, but it held my attention for close on two hours, and that is fairly good going.