1940 - CONTRABAND, early and good Powell and Pressburger film

 A film made early in the careers of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger soon to be known as The Archers.  As was to be the case, Powell directs while Pressburger contributes the screenplay.  Contraband is a spy thriller which reminded me of the early Hitchcock films. The film does contain the usual quirky characters that The Archers would specialize and Powell even in this early part of his career is good with his camera setups.

 As a romantic lead The Archers cast of all people Conrad Veidt, a German actor who usually played villains in his English language films.  Veidt was the sorcerer Jaffar in The Thief Of Bagdad, and was memorable as Major Strasser in Casablanca. Veidt played Nazi bad guys during World War II, which is sort of amusing as he was a fervent anti Nazi German.

 Here Veidt is the Captain of a Danish ship who is in pursuit of Valerie Hobson who may or may not be a spy. Veidt is one suave leading man.  Hobson definitely has her mysterious and alluring woman thing going in this film.  Their romantic flirting is very fun to watch.  

 

In a way the film is better than a lot of Hitchcock's early films, Powell and Pressburger always payed careful attention to the characters in their films something Hitchcock would not always do if it got in the way of one of his famous suspense set pieces.  The picture is also greatly aided by the photography of F.A. Young a cinematographer who would later shoot David Lean's super epics.

The running time is a very entertaining 92 minutes