Counterblast

The version I watched was from the DVD 50 movie boxset from Mill Creek called Nightmare Worlds, disk 3 side A.

A German scientist Dr. Bruckner - the Beast of Ravensbruck (Mervyn Johns) working on bacteria and immunology escapes Gillington P. O. W. Camp at the end of the second world war. With the help of what should have been called Dossier Odessa (1974), he gets to usurp the identity of an Australian scientist Dr. Richard Forrester (Anthony Eustrel.)

Luckily, Dr. Bruckner learned to speak English (supposed no accent) as a child. He does not sound Aussy to me, maybe Welsh. Talk about weird, if you have your head bashed in why add to it an obscure poison. Looks line Forrester has been truncated.

I am afraid we have to listen to background music (if you can call it that) constantly. With a few breaks

Now the story begins. As our Dr. Richard Forrester (now Mervyn Johns) seems a little strange. Golf clubs but never golfs. And lots of other enigmas. Looks like Dr. Forrester has to have heart; that is Tracy Hart (Nova Pilbeam) as a willing assistant.

On the side they dance the Paul Jones. The meaning of PAUL JONES is a method of changing partners during a dance whereby at a signal the dancers form a circle and execute a grand right and left until at another signal each man resumes the original dance taking as his new partner the lady who is opposite him. See this again in the movie Delitto in bianco (1946). Watching the Paul Jones in Counterblast, you will see a scarry encounter.

The plot thickens. Someone may be looking in his trunk. Or worse.

Will the Beast of Ravensbruck succeed and deliver to the cabal or is it curtains with a gas-tronomic surprise.

Over half a century before COVID-19 and still relevant.

A Nazi war criminal on the run after the end of World War II, assumes an Australian scientist's identity and sets up shop in England where he develops germ warfare experiments which he and his masters hope will return the Nazi regime to prominence. His plans are complicated though when he develops feelings for his pretty lab assistant.

This British dramatic thriller was made very close to the end of the war, so its story revolving around an ex concentration camp commander who was notorious for carrying out sadistic experiments on inmates is one which must have been touching on a grim subject which was extremely recent at the time. The Nazi is played by Mervyn Johns who was familiar to me from the brilliant Ealing anthology horror film Dead of Night (1945) and he is once again very good in a character who is not presented as one dimensionally evil as you might expect. His feelings for his lab assistant bring out the humanity within him, which most probably is his downfall ultimately too. The story perhaps could have had more suspense in it and it is also maybe slightly over-long but I thought it was definitely an interesting one nevertheless. It ends on a blackly ironic ending, which finished things off on an appropriate note.

I've always like Mervyn Johns, especially his portrayal of Bob Cratchit in the Alistair Sim "A Christmas Carol." Here's an about face where he plays a ruthless post war Nazi, attempting to find a cure for the plague. His motive is to find a cure so that this horrible disease can be unleashed on the enemy, but his people will continue to prosper. He kills a famous biologist and assumes his identity. He holes up in a small English town, though he is wanted throughout England. The problem is that he is so lacking in people skills that he draws all kinds of suspicion from his co-workers. A little kindness, a little compassion, and he could have pulled it off. He, of course, would take on the typical view of the Nazi hierarchy, humorless, godless, vicious. Johns is fantastic in his role. He tempers his anger by covering things up, but he becomes emotionally attached to what he can't have, the young woman who is his lab assistant. Still, he comes across as a humanitarian and is able to move around, doing noble work. He is forgiven for his eccentricities because of this. Watch this for some nice acting and a world that has just stepped out of a horrible war.

I first became aware of Nova Pilbeam in Hitchcock's "Young & Innocent" with Derrick de Marnay and in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" with Peter Lorre, both filmed in the 30s.Intrigued by her performance in these two films, I sought out this film from 1948.She is older by say 10 years or so and more mature but still attractive and adroitly plays the heroine as in the afore stated films.The other reviewers have covered the basic plot, so I will not risk giving out "spoilers" but confine myself to a few chosen words.Canadian Robert Beatty effectively plays the handsome hero while Nova shows misplaced loyalty to her boss.I noticed Alan Wheatley in the cast as a Nazi dentist (did he ever play a sympathetic role?).I first became aware of him playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1950s ITV children's TV series of "Robin Hood" starring Richard Greene.

My copy was a little bit muddy which I put down to the age of the original print but sound quality was fine.Another cameo of the nursing sister was played by Margareta Scott.She never seemed to get to play the lead.I saw Margareta in two Margaret Lockwood films playing supporting roles: "Girl in the News (1940) and "Quiet Wedding" (1941).

Mervyn Johns of course played the lead role as the bacterial scientist and I agree with a previous reviewer, he played a sort of latter day anti-hero.I also agree that much more tension could have been injected into the plot by the director Stein but of course Hitchcock was firmly established in Hollywood at the time.The result is a slightly above average thriller and I therefore rated it 6/10.

If you were an escaped Nazi criminal on the run in England, what would you do? Go deep underground? Try and Swim the channel? Or murder an emigrating scientist, take over his laboratory, and continue the unholy germ warfare experiments that you were doing back there during the war whilst pretending to be British and restraining yourself from screaming "Mein Furher!" As he was sort of brought up in England as a child his British accent is flawless, but the Nazi criminal is such an arrogant, ill-tempered, moaning bastard that he immediately attracts suspicion from everyone around him! It doesn't help that he's got a dead body in a trunk, won't let anyone into his secret germ warfare lab, shouts at the help, and falls in love with the daughter of the murdered scientist friend when he should have probably killed her instead (he was going to!).

Our Nazi scientist also spends a lot of time avoiding a woman who knew the guy he killed, replacing his house staff with suspicious teutonic accented women, and preventing the girl he didn't kill from falling in love with his assistant (who's is highly suspicious mainly due to a set of golf clubs).

This all sounds jolly exciting, but it kind of isn't for the most part. It's hilarious watching this guy barely restraining his Nazi tendencies (he even 'puts down' a German for decrying the Third Reich!) whilst trying to be a jovial Englishman, but a lot of this drags a bit, especially the ironic ending, which surely would have had many a surviving Jewish person saying "Er...too soon." Still....etc.