User Reviews

Not one of director John H. Auer's best films, this is a somewhat dull offering with a dull lead (Alan Marshall), a dull femme (Tala Birell), and a dull villain (C. Henry Gordon). Gordon is usually quite good, even charismatic, despite (or maybe because of) his habit of rattling off his lines too quickly; but he does have one brilliant little episode here in which he briefly comes to life. But now we come to someone who is absolutely top-notch from first to last (and I don't mean Dwight Frye who is hardly in the movie at all, despite being plastered all over the cover of the impoverished version available on an Alpha DVD). But I'm speaking of HERBERT MUNDIN, here in one of his best roles as Sergeant Higgs. Mundin – not anyone else – makes this movie well worth seeing!

On the verge of world war once again, Europe is already infested with spies and enemy agents with nefarious plans, and they aren't just Italian or German. In this case, the villain is right out in the open, a ruthless Russian industrialist (C. Henry Gordon in another one dimensional bad guy part), and Englishman Alan Marshal is sent to Paris to prevent Gordon from getting his hands on some valuable oil fields. Ironically, Marshal was once involved with Gordon's wife (Tala Birell, as close to Natasha as you're going to get here), and when Gordon realizes what Marshal's up to both business wise and personally, he marks him for death by creating a dining room electric chair in order to dispatch him. But Marshal hires cockney British sergeant Herbert Mundin to act as his valet, and for a while it appears that Bullwinkle has arrived to undermine the Russian bad guys. It all sounds thrilling, but other than Mundin's eccentric performance, it is extremely boring. Dwight Frye has a brief role as an evil chauffeur, while Elsa Buchanan adds comic relief to Mundin's valet as a flirtatious maid of Scottish descent whom Mundin mistakes for being French. Even though this is just under an hour, it drags due to its convoluted plot, wrapping itself up with some silly resolutions which made me wonder, why even do it at all since it truly has no point. Marshal is an acceptable hero, but Birell is boring as the heroine and Mady Correll has an uninteresting part as a dress shop owner also in love with Marshal.

I watched this film only because Egon Brecher was in it. As a pleasant surprise, so was Dwight Frye. Brecher appeared almost unnoticed in many classic horror films: The Black Cat, The Werewolf on London, The Black Room, The Devil Doll, and Mark of the Vampire. His secret was two-fold: he is ordinary looking, and has different makeup in each role. Here he is a murderous scientist with thick glasses. In other roles he has sported wigs and various style mustaches. Over his career, his English improved to be almost without an accent, so finding him by voice is also difficult.

I enjoyed the film. Unlike other reviewers, I though this was C. Henry Gordon's finest role. His cool evil is more affecting than when he shouts and leers in other films. Usually, when I see Herbert Mundin in the cast, I shrivel a bit; his comic characters ruin virtually every film he's in. Here he's a pleasant surprise, as an effective sidekick. Alan Marshall is an stalwart but human hero, an excellent foil for Gordon. A lot of the dialog reminds me of James Bond films. The actresses aren't very well fleshed out, but who cares? Despite a lack of action, the plot is exciting, and the villain's demise quite satisfactory. The only problem was the quality of the print. Quite a few splices make the dialog jumpy. Other than that, a satisfactory experience.