- Contraband (1940 film)
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Contraband
(Blackout)
Poster from trade screening 20 March 1940Directed by Michael Powell Produced by John Corfield Written by Story & Screenplay:
Emeric Pressburger
Scenario:
Michael Powell
Brock WilliamsStarring Conrad Veidt
Valerie HobsonMusic by Richard Addinsell
John Greenwood
Direction, Muir MathiesonCinematography Freddie Young Editing by John Seabourne Distributed by Anglo-American Release date(s) 11 May 1940 (UK)
29 November (US)Running time 92 min. (UK)
80 min. (US)Country United Kingdom Language English
DanishBudget £47,000 (est.) Contraband (1940) is a wartime spy film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which brought stars Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson together again after their success in The Spy in Black the previous year.
The title of the film in the United States was Blackout. Powell is quoted in his book A Life On Film, that the US renaming was a better title and he wished he had thought of it.
Many people find it refreshing to see Conrad Veidt playing a hero character; something he was not allowed to do very often. There is also an early uncredited performance by Leo Genn.
Contents
Plot
Danish Captain Andersen (Conrad Veidt) is stopped for a cargo inspection in a British Contraband Control Port in the first year of World War II, before Denmark has been occupied by the Germans. He gets some shore passes for himself and his First Officer but they are stolen by passengers Mrs. Sorensen (Valerie Hobson) and Mr. Pidgeon (Esmond Knight) who take a boat and go ashore. Capt. Andersen decides to follow them and the journey takes them through blacked-out London and to various strange characters and adventures.
Cast
- Conrad Veidt as Capt. Andersen
- Valerie Hobson as Mrs. Sorensen
- Hay Petrie as Axel Skold / Erik Skold
- Joss Ambler as Lt. Cmdr. Ashton, RNR
- Raymond Lovell as Van Dyne
- Esmond Knight as Mr. Pidgeon
- Charles Victor as Hendrick
- Phoebe Kershaw as Miss Lang
- Harold Warrender as Lt. Cmdr. Ellis, RN
- John Longden as Passport officer
- Eric Maturin as Passport officer
- Paddy Browne as Singer in "Regency"
- Dennis Arundell as Lieman
- Molly Hamley-Clifford as Baroness Hekla
- Eric Berry as Mr. Abo
- Cast notes
- Leo Genn and Peter Bull as two of Van Dyne's associates
- Milo O'Shea made his film debut, in the uncredited role of an air raid warden.[1]
Also making their screen debut were director Michael Powell's golden cocker spaniels, Erik and Spangle, who went on to appear in the Powell and Pressburger films The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) and A Matter of Life and Death, also known as Stairway to Heaven (1946).[2]
Production
Contraband was intended as a followup to Powell and Pressburger's The Spy in Black, which was filmed at the end of 1938, but was not released by Alexander Korda for almost a year.[3] The current film was in production from 16 December 1939 through 27 January 1940 [4] at Denham Film Studios, with location shooting in London at Chester Square in Belgravia, and in Ramsgate in Kent.[5]
Critical reaction
- "An odd little comic thriller - who, except perhaps Michael Powell, would cast 47-year-old Cabinet of Dr. Caligari star Conrad Veidt as a light romantic hero?" - TV Guide online review.[6]
- "Less stylish than The Spy in Black, this espionage thriller is more fun, with its tongue-in-cheek plot revelling in Hitchcockian eccentricities" - Time Out.
- "A neat Second World War espionage thriller that depicts a London crawling with spies" - Radio Times.
Notes
- ^ Milo O'Shea at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Erik at the Internet Movie Database, Spangle at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Eder, Bruce Review (Allmovie)
- ^ IMDb Box office/business
- ^ IMDb Filming locations
- ^ "Contraband: Review". TV Guide. http://movies.tvguide.com/contraband/review/109558.
External links
- Contraband reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Pages
- Contraband at the Internet Movie Database
- Contraband at the TCM Movie Database
- Contraband at AllRovi
- Contraband at the British Film Institute's Screenonline. Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).
Powell and Pressburger The films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger 1930s 1940s Contraband · An Airman's Letter to His Mother · 49th Parallel · One of Our Aircraft is Missing · The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp · The Volunteer · A Canterbury Tale · I Know Where I'm Going! · A Matter of Life and Death · Black Narcissus · The Red Shoes · The Small Back Room
1950s 1960s Peeping Tom 1 · They're a Weird Mob · Age of Consent 1
1970s 1 Powell only. Categories:- British films
- 1940 films
- Black-and-white films
- Denham films
- Films by Powell and Pressburger
- Spy films
- World War II films made in wartime
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