Shortly before the start of WW2, renown British big-game hunter Thorndike vacationing in Bavaria has Hitler in his gun sight. He is captured, beaten, left for dead, and escapes back to London where he is hounded by Nazi agents and aided by a young woman. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 2000.
Walter Pidgeon is intrepid British hunter "Thorndike" who is travelling through Bavaria when he, all of a sudden, discovers that at the end of the sights of his rifle is none other than Adolf Hitler! Shortly afterwards, he is apprehended by the Nazis and tortured by "Quive-Smith" (George Sanders) in the hope that he will sign a false confession stating that he was sent by the British government to assassinate their leader. Fortunately for "Thorndike" though, his brother is the British Ambassador so he is not so easy to dispose of. "Quive-Smith" conceives a plan to make his demise look like a hunting accident, but the wily man escapes and makes it back to Britain where he finds the arm of his nemesis is still outstretched behind him. Dodging his pursuers, he finds shelter in the flat of the young "Jerry" (Joan Bennett) and soon the pair of them are struggling to remain one step ahead of the chasing Gestapo. Eventually, his brother suggests that leaving the UK might be his best solution and so he devises a cunning plan to lay low that involves living in a cave, but unbeknown to him his enemy has managed to apprehend his young friend and so manages to find and blockade him inside his own hidey-hole, demanding the signed concession as the price of freedom... This is a superior wartime thriller that benefits from a rather different style of story, two strong performances from Pidgeon and Sanders and some good, solid writing. It offers us a slightly more sophisticated look at just how pre WWII espionage might have functioned - the object of the document being to embarrass the British into inaction when the Nazi invasion of Poland began. The story moves along quite quickly, Bennett adds a feisty charm to her rather brief appearances, and there is plenty of action - even an electrocution on the tube - to keep it moving along niftily. Well worth a watch if you like the genre - made at the start of the second world war, it still reflects a sense of honour amongst the enemies that was soon to die out!
