The Scientist Vanishes

bkoganbing

Czech scientist James Harcourt has perfected a new kind of armor plating and right before Czechoslovakia is taken over, Harcourt is spirited away to Great Britain to continue his work. But the Nazis manage to grab his daughter Margaret Lockwood and toss her into a concentration camp.

But that's only the beginning as fellow prisoner Paul Henreid figures out a way to escape and they both flee to Great Britain. But it was all a ruse so that the Nazis could recapture Harcourt and get him working for them before the shooting war starts.

The guy who loses Harcourt to the Nazis, Rex Harrison is anxious to redeem himself so he goes to Germany in search of Harcourt and Lockwood with an elaborate ruse.

At this point the film starts to look very suspiciously like The Lady Vanishes as Henreid and Harrison play a deadly cat and mouse game where the roles of cat and mouse seem to change. I'm sure that Alfred Hitchcock knew and approved of the homage Carol Reed was giving him.

Otherwise there's no way that Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne to have done the same parts they did in The Lady Vanishes for Hitchcock. The two of them did get a lot of acclaim for their roles as a couple of Colonel Blimps on holiday who do in fact come through in the clutch.

Because Carol Reed gets some good performances out of his cast a rather improbable tale is well handled for the screen.

Though I do believe the Nazis did ultimately win this one because what Harcourt was working on was armor plating and the armor plating on their Panzer tanks was pretty darn impregnable to say the least.

score 8/10

bkoganbing 7 January 2008

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1795144/