I SEE A DARK STRANGER (1946)

I suspect this British film was intended to be an interesting mix of tones and genres like Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES, but the master's touch is missing from this one; both films were written by the team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, but this was directed by Launder. I know little about the history of the Irish Republican Army, so some of the plot points were lost on me. Deborah Kerr is the daughter of an Irish patriot who tells tales of his exciting past fighting the British, though it turns out that most of his stories are rather exaggerated. During WWII, Kerr goes off to Dublin hoping to join the IRA, but instead she gets involved with a gang of Nazi spies who want her to smuggle some information. There are some genuine thrills here, with the threat of arrest and death always nearby. A British soldier on leave (Trevor Howard) takes a fancy to her and helps her escape the clutches of the Nazis after she realizes the extent of the betrayal she's gotten herself into. Raymond Huntley is her chief contact, and there's a good scene involving him, a wheelchair, and a cliff. Garry Marsh and Tim Macaulay are a pair of policemen on the hunt for Kerr even as she's right under their noses--these characters seem clearly to be modeled after the comic duo of Caldicott and Charters in LADY VANISHES. David Tomlinson (Mr. Banks in MARY POPPINS) has a small part somewhere, though I didn't see him. The tone shifts, from danger to humor and back, aren't totally successful, but it's an interesting movie anyway, and Kerr is funny and sly. [DVD]