Monday, June 1, 2015

Cottage to Let (1941)

Cottage to Let is an enjoyable British mystery thriller directed by Anthony Asquith, a prominent British film director best known for his adaptations of plays, including Pygmalion (1938), The Winslow Boy (1948), The Browning Version (1951) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1952).


Cottage to Let is very much a light crime thriller in the manner of Edgar Wallace, but it is very well done.  Set, of course, during the Second World War, in the environs of a country house, it concerns one of those gentleman genius amateur scientists you read about in British mystery fiction of the era, who in this case has invented a bombsight that is not only greatly valued by the British government, but fervently desired by a den of Nazi spies.  The Nazis are out at any cost to grab the plans, or the formula, or, hell, let's just call it, as Alfred Hitchcock did, the MacGuffin.

The scientist, John Barrington, is played by Leslie Banks, an actor with quite a respectable mystery/suspense genre pedigree, including the suspense classic The Most Dangerous Game (1932); Hitchock's original version of The Man who Knew too Much (1934)--the one with Peter LorreThe Murder Party (1935); Jamaica Inn (1939) (Hitchcock again); The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939); and Haunted Honeymoon (1940), the film adaptation of Dorothy L. Sayers's Busman's Honeymoon (1937) (though it's American Robert Montgomery who plays Lord Peter Wimsey).

All's fair in love and war?
John Mills, Carla Lehmann, Michael Wilding
Odd Duck
Alastair Sim chats up Jeanne De Casalis
while the maid looks on

Banks is good in this, although others in the cast have more colorful roles.  Who are the others?  Well there's John Barrington's scatty but very socially active wife, humorously played by Jeanne De Casalis; their lovely daughter, Helen, played by Carla Lehmann (though you might be forgiven for thinking it's Carole Lombard); Barrington's bespectacled young assistant, Alan Trently (Michael Wilding); and a trio of guests, originally all meant to stay at the Barringtons' cottage to let: the enigmatic Charles Dimble (Alastair Sim); a convalescent bomber pilot, Flt.-Lieut. Perry (John Mills); and a pugnacious adolescent Cockney evacuee named Ronald (George Cole).  Among this cast, there may be some individuals who are up to no good--but who???

As stated, this is an enjoyable film, with good acting, a clever script, some charming bits of humor, a little romance and a suitably thrilling ending.  Sim is fun as always of course, but it's really George Cole, the Cockney Sherlock Holmes enthusiast, who walks off with the film. (Cole, incidentally, just celebrated his ninetieth birthday this year.)  Also especially notable is John Mills, who lends the film some dramatic heft.  You might at times mistake Cottage to Let for an early Hitchcock movie like Young and Innocent (1937).  Evidently the film is public domain and can be viewed on youtube; there's also a good copy of it available on DVD.

As irrepressible as his hair: George Cole as "Ronald"

14 comments:

  1. Lovely to see a review of this one. George Cole was taken under Sim's wing, either before or after this film, and he has stated previously how much he owes the elder actor, going on to appear in a number of films together, like The Green Man, An Inspector Calls and of course the original St Trinians Films. Jeanne de Casalis would have been a big name at the time, playing the radio character Mrs Feather.

    Think you should review The Arsenal Stadium Mystery next time

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jeanne de Casalis was very funny, and I felt sure I had seen her in something before. I think I have a copy of Arsenal somewhere and will try to review that one. I like Leslie Banks a lot, and I'm also familiar with the author of the book.

      Delete
  2. Glad you enjoyed this one, I remember liking it a lot. A word of caution - it may be PD in the US but definitely not in Europe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's all over youtube, so I wondered about that. I bought a copy on Amazon, a good copy too.

      Delete
    2. About 97% of all non-user generated content on Youtuve not uploaded by production companied infringes copyright Curtis - everybody knows that ...

      Delete
    3. IMDB also links to it at the internet archive, what do you think of that? But, as I said, I bought my copy on Amazon! It's a prime instant video and is offered by several DVD companies. It's all over the net.

      Delete
  3. I watched this a year or so ago on YouTube, I remember enjoying it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. An enjoyable film. I got the DVD a couple of years ago and in the extras is a television play starring Alastair Sim and a pre Sherlock Holmes Jeremy Brett playing priests. A coincidence you mentioning this film as quite a few of the detective novels I've read recently have had references to the "The Fifth Column".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This also reminded me of a couple wartime Miles Burton novels, Up the Garden Path/Death Visits Downspring and Dead stop.

      Delete
  5. Very fun movie. I tracked it down a couple of years ago after learning about it from Yvette Banek's blog who was just as enthusiastic as you. Probably moreso. Can't ever go wrong with Alastair Sim. Love him!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. John, yes, I will watch anything with Alastair Sim in it, loved him ever since as a kid seeing him play Scrooge. Really good cast all round too. So many child stars can be irritating, in my view, but the young George Cole did a great job.

      Delete
  6. Sounds like just the sort of movie I adore. I'll probably grab the Region 2 DVD from Network. Thanks for the heads up!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've just watched this movie based on your recommendation. And it truly is a delight.

    ReplyDelete