The Plot

Robert Newton stars as Captain David Grant, a high-ranking officer of British Military Intelligence during World War II who leads the hunt for scientist Nils Erich Hansen, believed to be on the verge of developing the atomic bomb for the Nazis. The film opens with the interrogation of a man named Frederick Jannings, who was on his way from Holyhead in northwest Wales to deliver documents about the progress of the bomb to an enemy kingpin, Keitel (Herbert Lom) hiding out in neutral Ireland. Jannings' refusal to answer their questions and his resultant execution prompt Grant and an assistant, Captain Wilson, to hop the titular craft personally to track down Keitel. Their quarry is found, but they soon learn that the real key figure in tracking down Professor Hansen is a man named Faber.

In an unsummarizably complicated plotline fraught with mildly implausible coincidences and light humor, Grant goes undercover, posing as a military deserter and getting himself hired by the shady Faber, whilst secretly keeping in touch with headquarters through his amiable but able friend and colleague Captain Toby Hunter (Guy Middleton).

In exchange for not reporting him to military authorities as the man they supposedly want for stealing secret documents, Faber pressures Grant to marry an Austrian refugee named Marion Decker (Muriel Pavlow), for whom he needs to obtain citizenship and whom Grant believes he has never met, although the two bump into each other, exchanging double takes and coy glances, several times before being officially introduced. Following their Registry Office marriage, David and Marion have been instructed to have no contact, but when she shows up at his apartment asking for help, a relationship begins to develop, and she inevitably becomes involved in David's mission to find Hansen whilst striving to keep his true identity a secret.

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Plot ~ Trivia ~ Images ~ Credits

Trivia

• Hay Petrie, who played the station master in this film and seemed to portray more than his fair share of unnamed minor characters, previously appeared with Newton as Sir Humphrey's groom in Jamaica Inn, as John Aloysius Evan in 21 Days, and as the old general in They Flew Alone.
• Wilfred Hyde-White, who appeared with Newton in 1940's Poison Pen and was destined for far greater fame, makes a brief appearance in this film as a taxi driver.
• Olga Lindo, who plays Mrs. Coleman, went on in 1949 to play Mrs. Humphries in another Newton film, Obsession.
• Herbert Lom (who went on to international fame in the Pink Panther films) went from a virtual cameo role in this film to a much larger one in 1948's Snowbound, while Newton made only a brief appearance in the same film.
• An illustrated four-page plot synopsis distributed in Germany shortly after WWII removed all references to bombs, Nazis, and the war. Instead, the villains are a cocaine-smuggling ring. (For a complete plot synopsis of the English version, alongside a translation of the German synopsis, click here. Warning: both synopses contain copious spoilers and are intended for those who have already seen the film or don't expect to have the opportunity, as well as to provide an interesting comparison of the two versions.)

copyright © 2006 by Susan Dauenhauer Ciriello
All rights reserved

Images

with Muriel Pavlow and Raymond Lovell

with Muriel Pavlow

Credits

Written and Directed by Laurence Huntington Screenplay by Laurence Huntington and Robert Hall Music score by Charles Williams Produced by Hamilton G. Inglis Cast (in approximate order of appearance):
Captain David Grant		Robert Newton
Frederick Jannings		Marius Goring
Captain Toby Hunter		Guy Middleton
Sir George Bell		Valentine Dyall
Captain Robert Wilson		Lawrence O'Madden
Paul Faber		Raymond Lovell
George Leggett		Leslie Dwyer
Hotel Porter		Howard Douglas
Inspector Martin		Stuart Lindsell
Keitel		Herbert Lom
Ticket Collector		Hubert Leslie
Naval Surgeon		Derek Elphinstone
Lily Leggett		Brenda Bruce
Marion Decker		Muriel Pavlow
Station Master		Hay Petrie
Alfred Bowman		John Ruddock
Mrs. Coleman		Olga Lindo
Inspector Longhurst		Gordon McLeod
Taxi Driver		Wilfred Hyde-White
Carroll Gibbons, orchestra leader		Himself
Edmundo Ros (of Edmundo Ros and His Rhumba Band)		Himself
Factory Watchman		Johnnie Schofield
Inspector Emerson		Gerald Case
Lieutenant Allen		Julian Dallas (a.k.a. Scott Forbes)
Station Official		George Hirste
Professor Nils Erich Hansen		Martin Miller
Hood		Bruce Gordon
Sidney Vane		Joan Maude

Night Boat to Dublin copyright 1946, Associated British Pictures,
Distributed by Pathe Pictures Ltd.