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 The Odessa File (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 Green for Danger (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.

Nazi doctor Mervyn Johns has escaped from Allied arrest. He murders an English scientist who is about to take over a new position where no one knows him and takes his place. He's working on a vaccine afainst germ warfare, with assistants Nova Pilbeam and Robert Beatty. They think it's humanitarian work. He plans to use it to conquer the world.

It's a rather fanciful thriller, mostly interesting for being Nova Pilbeam's last screen appearance, and for Johns being cast so strongly against type. He was expert at playing small, ground-down men in more than seventy movies, it's sometimes hard to realize that he wasn't what he appeared to be on screen. He was a fine actor, and, given the chance to play this sort of character, did so very well.

As for Miss Pilbeam, her fourteen-year career as a child actor and ingenue were ending at age 29. It seems rather young to retire, but she had had a busy and rather distinguished career. Her second marriage was beginning, and she retired to a thoroughly private life. She died in 2015, age 95.

"A Nazi scientist escapes Germany prior to its surrender at the end of World War II and sets up a lab in England using the identity of an Australian scientist he murdered. Hoping to complete his germ-warfare experiment, in the hopes of its use by Nazis in a future war, the scientist's agenda becomes complicated when he falls in love with his lab assistant," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Mervyn Johns is terrific, deftly playing "Dr. Bruckner", who poses as "Dr. Anderson", to kill and take the place of "Dr. Forrester". Still, Paul L. Stein's "Counterblast" is unnecessarily slow moving, and simply refuses to get mileage out of suspenseful situations. For starters, the film should have begun with Mr. Johns' murder of "Dr. Forrester". Previous events are easily filled in during subsequent scenes; and, an air of mystery would be added to the unfolding events.

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.