Counterblast

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.

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.

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.

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 have to admit that one of my greatest cinematic guilty pleasures is the horror of the Nazi film (unfortunately, certain political trends recently in my neighbour to the south, the United States, make me unfortunately feel that similar ways of thinking have yet to be eradicated). Thankfully, being born as I was in the late 60's, I didn't have to experience such terror firsthand, but it's fascinating to see, through the wonders of cinema, examples of that fascist type of thinking, carried out to its fruition (some of my favourites in this area are quite controversial films, like 'Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom', 'The Night Porter' and 'Dr. Strangelove'). At least in my estimation, I have no idea how I would have acted in either polarity of the situation: either being a German and told to act accordingly, or being a concentration camp inmate. I am simply thankful I didn't have to experience either horrific scenario.

This film was an unexpected pleasure. Though no star power is behind it, or budget to speak of, and though there is suspense and a good script, it could have been a lot better handled, both in terms of direction and cinematography (it has 'British 40's B-picture' written all over it, while it's crying out for a capable helmer such as Sir Carol Reed, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, or The Archers, each of which would have made a minor masterpiece out of it). I am very thankful that it was included in my Mill Creek 'Nightmare Worlds' 50-film pack, or honestly I would have never heard of it. Now my main ambition is to get all of their sets, and see what other cinematic hidden treasures I can discover!