Passport to Destiny

I would have love to have known what Dr.Goebbels would have made of this incredible piece of wartime propaganda about a patriotic cockney cleaning lady from Camberwell who in a twist similar to 'DOA' is emboldened by the possession of a Magic Eye formerly in the possession of her late husband which she believes makes her indestructible, and thus sets off for Berlin to assassinate Hitler (where everyone conveniently speaks in English and she avoids exposure by passing herself off as a deaf mute).

As usual, Hollywood has strange ideas about the way the Nazi hierarchy functioned; and this version would have us believe that Himmler's office was located directly opposite Hitler's in the Chancellery, with Goebbels' cosily adjacent. William Joyce - as portrayed by the ever urbane Gavin Muir - according to this account has the run of the place, but seems to have little time for his Nazi minders nor they for him.

It's all complete nonsense, done on a shoestring; but it lifts the spirits to see the gorgeous Elsa Lanchester for her only time in Hollywood cast in the lead (she had starred in a few short silent comedies back in blighty fifteen years earlier) and she rises to the occasion with a gusto that amply makes up for the general shabbiness of the rest of the production.

Preposterous but fun film starring Elsa Lanchester as a British cleaning woman whose late husband (a photo of Charles Laughton) was saved from crocodiles by a glass eye he carried.

She believes this eye to have magic powers. She believes it will protect her against all eventualities, so she decides to go to Germany and kill Hitler.

I had a feeling I'd seen this film, and when I heard Lanchester's name in the film, Mrs. Muggins, I knew I had. I named one of my cats Muggins.

Pretending to be deaf and dumb, Mrs. M gets a job at Hitler's headquarters, though he's out of town at the time. She does, however, manage to pass information to an agent about the whereabouts of his girlfriend. What she doesn't realize is that the Nazis have actually let the woman leave prison and have followed her and the agent and know of Mrs. Muggins' involvement.

Though Lanchester was 42 at the time of this film, she doesn't look it and is quite pretty. She gives a lively performance and is very funny, though the humor comes out of the seriousness of her character and her belief in this magic piece. Seeing her order a Nazi to get her coat was too much, as was her rehearsal for murder in Hitler's office.

The rest of the cast is good, and despite the fact that it was done on a set, you really do think you're in London and Berlin somehow.

Short, and Lanchester is always a pleasure.

This is surely one of the most extraordinary films to have come out of America during the war. It is also notable for being the only Hollywood movie in which Elsa Lanchester, best known as The Bride of Frankenstein, had the lead part and top billing. She plays a cockney charlady who is convinced she's protected by a "lucky charm" once owned by her late husband (cut to a photo of Charles Laughton) and is resolved to assassinate Hitler. During the London blitz, armed only with her bucket and a mop, she stows away on a ship across the English Channel and proceeds to scrub her way across Occupied Europe by pretending to be deaf and dumb. She lands up in Hitler's HQ in Berlin where language problems are solved by all the 'bad' Germans speaking English with funny guttural accents! Elsa gets a job as a cleaner in Hitler's office but he's out at the time so she delivers a propaganda-like speech to his empty chair. Some 'good' Germans opposed to Hitler (they all speak English with American accents) whisk Elsa back to England in a stolen plane. She is hailed as a heroine only to discover that the "lucky charm" she took with her was part of a job-lot of glass eyes! An absolutely priceless movie, and one which at the end is dedicated to the fighting US forces overseas. One can only wonder what they made of it.

Offbeat and Wild RKO Comedy Starring Elsa Lanchester. Showcasing Her considerable Comedic Talents, makes this Farce a Lot of Fun. Watching the Scrubwoman Foil the Nazis one can't help Think of "The Great Dictator" (1940), "To Be or Not to Be" (1942), and Even the Three Stooges.

This little B-Movie Charms its Way through the One Hour Running Time and is Never Boring. Elsa Carries the Show and the Supporting Cast Helps make this a Goofy Gamble that Works its Wonders with its Fantasy Plot, the Assassination of Adolf Hitler, by a Commoner (a Female no less). "Who's a commoner?", says Mrs. Muggins.

The Silliness about Her Dead Husband is Overplayed a bit, and the Deal about the "Magic" Eye had to be Debunked because of the Hays Code's "Religion" Clause, but Aside from that, the Movie is quite Entertaining.

The plot has more holes than Swiss cheese, yet the story and Lanchester's character charge continually and inexorably forward. Can't imagine how this got dreamed up, but it makes for a cute fast-paced farcical fantasy. Not a great film or even a good film, yet Lanchester's presentation brings a mix of Charlie Chaplin and Lucille Ball to the loony scrubwoman who believes she is magically protected from all harm, even while everything and everyone is getting blown up all around her. She has a plucky determination and dedication to her cause, and blithely strolls down streets of London while bombs are dropping all around her; makes her way 1,000 miles across Europe with no money, no ID papers and no prearranged confederates to check in with and receive assistance from, in record time; and even barks orders to Nazis while she is being held prisoner by them. Once she sets out on this quest, you can't stop watching to see where it leads her and how she will continue unscathed, even though we all know none of it can succeed. Luckily, as silly as it is, it does not waste a great deal of our time.

Among the supporting players, Gordon Oliver was adequately heroic in demeanor as a German officer who was also a resistance agent with nothing of importance to actually do; Lionel Royce as a high ranking loyal German officer talked an appropriately menacing game, but left the actual violence to his underlings, and Gavin Muir was sufficiently complex as the English public propaganda mouthpiece for the Reich with wavering loyalties. You can definitely find worse ways to spend a little over an hour of your life.