This is more ambitious than many British seventy minute films of its era, with occasional moments of interest, though none of it really works. It's fast moving with some deft editing from Thorold Dickinson, which can't prevent tedium from setting in however and there's brief location filming in Liverpool and considerably more elsewhere in Europe, but even this and a plot hazily involving contemporary political turmoil in Spain can't reflect anything on nodding terms with real life.
It starts quite well with an amusing scene between Peter Haddon and Ivor Barnard, then Haddon's lazy but unusually plucky and resourceful 'silly ass' discovering a house on the marshes guarded by armed thugs, before falling for the glamorous daughter - leading German actress Brigitte Horney - of Spanish revolutionary Allan Jeayes. From then on it all becomes increasingly incoherent and difficult to follow, but as it's hard to care about any of the characters, it's hardly worth making the effort. A large cast including renowned character actors Hay Petrie and Abraham Sofaer aren't given much of a chance, while Jeayes' one-note performance as the charmless, arrogant counterfeiter, soon outstays its welcome. That said, it is a real boon that we now have the opportunity to see such 1930's British films for the first time, many of them of more interest and entertainment value than this.
It starts quite well with an amusing scene between Peter Haddon and Ivor Barnard, then Haddon's lazy but unusually plucky and resourceful 'silly ass' discovering a house on the marshes guarded by armed thugs, before falling for the glamorous daughter - leading German actress Brigitte Horney - of Spanish revolutionary Allan Jeayes. From then on it all becomes increasingly incoherent and difficult to follow, but as it's hard to care about any of the characters, it's hardly worth making the effort. A large cast including renowned character actors Hay Petrie and Abraham Sofaer aren't given much of a chance, while Jeayes' one-note performance as the charmless, arrogant counterfeiter, soon outstays its welcome. That said, it is a real boon that we now have the opportunity to see such 1930's British films for the first time, many of them of more interest and entertainment value than this.