They Met in the Dark

I know nothing about Karel Lamac, other than he was born in Prague, captial of the former Czechoslovakia, and he directed THEY MET IN THE DARK at the height of WWII.

The script by Anatole Grunwald and well known British supporting actor, Miles Malleson, rates less than memorable, as does the acting by young James Mason, David Farrar and Joyce Howard (best of all, good old Edward Rigby as Mason's sidekick). Not that photography and art direction lift the film to any unusual heights, either, but in the end I will always remember it as an enjoyable ally vs axis spy yarn.

There is a side magician/singing show featuring Phyllis Stanley, a harmonica player who sounds like Larry Adler, and a couple of rabbit- and pup-producing artists which lightens the atmosphere.

No masterpiece, but I liked it. 7/10.

Another of the British Noirs from the Koch Lorber box. It takes place in England, with English characters: at least we have some coherence of plot and setting. What is the plot, exactly? Something to do with Nazi spies trying to strike at a warship; James Mason has vowed to stop them. I kept thinking of Hitchcock's 39 Steps; Mason and Joyce Howard sticking together the way Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll did--handcuffed--as they traipsed through Scotland. I don't think there's any value to labelling this movie a noir--it's a wartime thriller, pure and simple, and enjoyable for that reason. Where is the hard-bitten but honest detective, where the dangerous woman? no noir here.

The career that James Mason had before being discovered by Hollywood was quite prolific. Thanks to TCM, audiences have had the opportunity to see some of his British films. This one, "They Met in the Dark," is a 1943 noir, and has both elements of drama and humor. The film begins with a trial, after which, found guilty of treason, Richard Heritage (Mason) is stripped of rank and thrown out of the Navy. He sets out, with one of his crew who believes in him, to prove his innocence. He backtracks, repeating his actions from the day he was arrested.

He finds one woman (Patricia Medina) dead, another woman (Joyce Howard) positive that he had something to do with it, and a talent agent (Tom Walls) who has some interesting acts on his roster as well as a sophisticated singer (Phyllis Stanley).

Mason is handsome, elegant, and vital in the lead role. He handles the lighter moments very well and has lots of charm. It's easy to see why he eventually went to Hollywood. Stanley does some nice singing, and Ronald Chesney plays a great harmonica.

Different and enjoyable, with a good plot and British atmosphere that will keep the viewer interested.

Reading the synopsis of They Met In The Dark I was expecting quite a different film. The plot outline made it sound incredibly serious and this was wartime Great Britain.

Instead I got a rather lighthearted treatment of the plight of courtmartialed Naval Commander James Mason. Seems as though he was given a Mickey Finn and left with false orders in his pocket that led to his ship being sunk by the Nazis. Now cashiered from the Royal Navy, Mason's looking for answers.

So is Joyce Howard who is over from Canada looking for her girlfriend who has disappeared. She finds the girlfriend's corpse with Mason in a mysterious house.

After this They Met In The Dark is a variation on what Alfred Hitchcock did much better with The Thirty Nine Steps. In fact the method used by the bad guy spies for transmitting messages involves a theatrical performer.

I guess I'm not used to seeing James Mason in material as light as this. He and Howard do have some good chemistry. When he would do Hitchcock in North By Northwest he was not the light leading man there.

Not one of Mason's classic films, but something different.

This film is worth watching for Karel Lamac's direction. Born in the former Czechoslovakia and unknown to me I would very much like to discover his silent films. In this rather pedestrian film of murder, a dismissed man from the navy due to very dubious reasons, Lamac keeps the pace and adds the occasional visual flourishes that are exciting. There is an old dark house, a fleeting masked figure and a dead woman's body found by another woman which is visually stunning. The lighting has elements of Expressionism that heightens the horror, and in general the film is fascinating to watch. James Mason plays the dismissed man, and of course there has to be a heroine played adequately by Joyce Howard. Patricia Medina disappears far too quickly, and in my opinion I longed to see more of her, and would I feel have been better in the lead female role. Style wins over content here, but as Karel Lamac's style is so good the film is worth watching. A distinct European touch to very British material.