The House of the Spaniard

I have to say that this is one of the most confusing films that i have ever seen.It starts off reasonably enough in Liverpool,and it seems to be something to do with the revolution in Spainand gun running.Peter Hadden plays the lead character and must be the most ineffectual lead ever.He plays it as one of what was termed "silly ass" characters which were common at that time.Because he has seen a murder he is kidnapped to Spain but manages to make his escape.However he is then involved in a train crash with the most awful model shots you could ever wish to see.The next minute he is back in England in someone elses clothes.The film goes downhill from there if it is possible into total incoherence.The director,Reginald Denham,was more a theatre director,and it looks as if he didn't have his heart in his work.

This movie belongs to Peter Haddon and Brigitte Horney, the leads. Peter's character is silly but brave and sincere. Brigitte's character is smart and sexy. She's beautiful and confident. You can imagine that just maybe she could go for Peter.

You get to see some great old 1930's cars in this film, and there are a wealth of exterior scenes. Brigitte sings two songs, which I enjoyed. Peter's character is pretty over the top, and perhaps in response to that, she underplays very well. Really, this movie would be worth seeing for her fine performance--and her stunning beauty--alone. There is an excellent print on DVD from the Ealing Studios Rarities Collection, volume 5. It's pal format, so if you're in the USA, like me, you will need an all-region DVD player to watch it on that DVD. This movie has a fresh, freewheeling quality to it, as many 1930's films had. A lot is packed into the 67 minutes run time. Quite enjoyable.

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.

One of the other reviewers has to say that this is one of the most confusing films he has ever seen. I would say that it is not only the most confusing I have ever seen, but also the outright silliest, as well as being exceptionally funny. I found myself frequently laughing, hilariously, though mostly not with the cast but at them. After a few minutes I completely gave up on the utterly inconsequential plot, which seemed to be non-existent. The lead man had apparently drifted in from a pantomime, and the lead female thought she was in a musical. What the rest of the cast thought they were doing I have no idea. The director must have been insane, or drunk throughout. The continuity was random, and that's putting it mildly. Suddenly the extras were firing machine guns at each other. All action stopped however, when the female star corralled a band and started to sing. Come to think of it, it must be one of the most extraordinary films ever made. Somebody must have had buckets of money to waste. Lovely cars, lovely houses, fantastic shots and scenery. It far outstrips The Outlaw in riotous, ludicrous, incomprehensibiliity. Congratulations. A 1936 time capsule.