It strikes me as a particularly relevant that this film by Hitchcock should have been shown recently.
Events in the news have been surprisingly reminiscent of some of the issues raised in this wartime propaganda film, which I found amusingly described on the BBC as a humorous thriller.
It is some measure of the quality of the film that it has been remade, and although I have only seen one of the remade versions, it is just as successful as the original.
Although there are aspects of the original that make it preferable, as ever, over subsequent remakes.
Hitchcock is not terribly well known for his humorous films, but this certainly has its moment of finding humour in the way that it pokes fun at two cricket obsessives.
But humour that is balanced perfectly with the deportment of those two otherwise laughable characters when confronted with danger.
This is as much part of the critical message of the film, in the same way that the ‘pacifist’ that is killed by a ruthless foe makes it clear that this is not the way of dealing with such an enemy.
That the vanished lady is an amiable elderly lady is another aspect in which characters are painted so as to be different from the stereotype.
The subtle message is perhaps that it is important not to underestimate the capacity of those that we might otherwise find humorous.
The McGuffin in this film is the notion that the contents of a secret treaty can be contained in a snatch of music, music that is smuggled out of the country in which the action takes place, and music which then unites Miss Froy with those who in turn have saved her from the clutches of foreign agents.
That it is a love story as well as at turns a spy thriller and a comic portrayal of the English abroad is part of the genius of the director.
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