“CONTRABAND”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24716, 19 September 1941, Page 3

“CONTRABAND”

In the tradition of the great stage and film success “The Luck of the Navy,” which played long seasons m the war of 1914-18, is the M.G.M. British film “Contraband,” a rattling good thriller, full of the tang of the sea. which will open at the Regent Theatre to-day. Swiftly the action changes from contraband detection methods by the Royal Navy in the English Channel to pulse-quickening encounters with i nest of Nazi spies, concealed in the night haunts of wartime London, following the outbreak of war in 1939 The actual methods employed in blockade running arc faithfully and thrillingly portrayed. Tall, handsome Conrad Veldt, as Captain Andersen, skipper of a Danish liner, plays con'dncingly the part of an adventurous seafarer following a beautiful British girl spy into the coils of underground Nazidom. As the spy, Valerie Hobson is fascinatingly piquant, investing the part with the courage and resource Cor which secret service agents are notably famous. There is nothing ruesome about the story, which is first-class melodrama once it gets into its stride. There is an excellent supporting programme.