The wartime propaganda and homeland defence messages are laid on a bit thick in this
thriller mystery, but not enough to spoil its entertainment
value. In a remarkable film debut, 16-year-old George Cole
manages to out-shine a cast which includes some of the finest British
actors of the period: Alastair Sim, John Mills and Leslie Banks.
Cole went on to become a much-loved star of British film and television
in a career spanning almost seventy years, but he is of course best
remembered for the part of Arthur Daley in the hit TV series Minder.
Cottage to Let was adapted
from a hit stage play, performed in 1940, in which most of the
leads in the film (notably Sim and Cole) had appeared. The
biggest surprise is that Mills, usually cast as the good guy, gets to
play the principle baddie, and a nasty one at that. Although the
film is a little dated, marred by some clunky direction and cheap
studio exteriors that singularly fail to evoke the Scottish setting, it
still retains a great deal of charm.
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Next Anthony Asquith film: Rush Hour (1941)
Film Synopsis
When Mrs Barrington puts her cottage up for let she gets far more than
she bargained for. It is wartime and the cottage serves as a military
hospital, although the only patient being treated on the premises is
Flight Lieutenant Perry, who injured himself when he parachuted from
his Spitfire. Mrs Barrington had promised the cottage to child
evacuees, but when Mr Charles Dimble turns up claiming to have let the
cottage through an estate agent, the children have to go
elsewhere. One of these is a boy named Ronald, whom Mrs
Barrington takes in at her own home. Ronald learns that his
hostess's husband, John, is an inventor working on a bombsight for the
Royal Air Force. Ronald isn't the only one interested in John
Barrington's work however. Nazi agents are operating in the area
and intend to kidnap the inventor and take him back to Germany...
In the 1940s, the shadowy, skewed visual style of 1920s German expressionism was taken up by directors of American thrillers and psychological dramas, creating that distinctive film noir look.
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