Contraband (1940 film)
| Contraband (Blackout) |
|
|---|---|
poster from trade screening 20 March 1940
|
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| Directed by | Michael Powell |
| Produced by | John Corfield |
| Written by |
Scenario: Michael Powell Brock Williams |
| Screenplay by | Emeric Pressburger |
| Story by | Emeric Pressburger |
| Starring |
Conrad Veidt Valerie Hobson |
| Music by |
Richard Addinsell John Greenwood |
| Cinematography | Freddie Young |
| Edited by | John Seabourne |
|
Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Anglo-American |
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Release date
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11 May 1940 (UK) 29 November (US) |
|
Running time
|
92 minutes (UK) 80 minutes (US) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £47,000 (est.) |
| Box office | 1,385,365 admissions (France) |
Contraband (1940) is a wartime spy film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which reunited stars Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson after their earlier appearance in The Spy in Black the previous year. On this occasion, Veidt plays a hero, something he did not do very often, and there is also an early (uncredited) performance by Leo Genn.
The title of the film in the United States was Blackout. Powell writes in his autobiography, A Life in Movies, as saying that the U.S. renaming was a better title and he wished he had thought of it.
It is November 1939: the Phoney War-stage of the World War II. Denmark is still neutral, but (Danish) Captain Andersen (Conrad Veidt) and his freighter Helvig are stopped in the English Channel by Lt. Commanders Ashton (Joss Ambler) and Ellis (Harold Warrender) for a cargo inspection in a British Contraband Control Port.
He receives two shore passes for himself and his First Officer Axel Skold (Hay Petrie) to dine with Ashton and Ellis, but the passes (and Helvig's motorboat) are stolen by passengers Mrs. Sorensen (Valerie Hobson) and talent scout Mr. Pidgeon (Esmond Knight). From a cut-out newspaper train schedule, Andersen is able to figure out they are taking a train to London and catches up with them; but, when the train arrives in the blacked-out metropolis, he is only able to hold on to Sorensen.
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