BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

JohnHowardReid A Two Cities Film, made at D & P Studios, Denham, presented by J. Arthur Rank, released through Columbia Pictures Corp. Not copyrighted in the U.S.A. No New York opening. U.S. release: 11 April 1942. U.K. release: 10 August 1942. Australian release: 23 September 1943 (sic). 8,444 feet. 93½ minutes.SYNOPSIS: British newspaperman tangles with Nazi spies in London during the blitz.COMMENT: Despite some very conventional characters and plot strands in this wartime newspaper yarn, this is a truly remarkable film. Aside from the actuality footage of the London blitz which is skilfully worked into the fabric of the movie itself - horrifying, unbelievable material of human ingenuity, courage, perseverance and insistence on "normalcy" in the face of incredibly wanton destruction, peril and danger - there are a number of astonishing set-pieces including an extended dolly shot of vast crowds of evacuated Dunkirk servicemen at a railway station and a skilfully disorienting tracking shot down a London street in a black-out. The lighting, compositions and camera movement often reveal an imaginative skill far beyond the normal rather humdrum standards of director Harold French. At times indeed the terrifyingly real-life bizarreness of the movie's background overshadows the story - particularly Valerie Hobson's part in it which has been struck from the cliched mould of novice girl reporter makes good (though she does figure in an edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger bit of action which would put any Hollywood serial to shame). Greene is also solidly conventional though he does have opportunities to show his mettle. The other players are likewise predictably cast and serve their roles with the fine exactitudes we might expect, though we should note Ronald Shiner in a small but straight role, and the wonderfully realistic portrait of Frederick Cooper as the belittled Trapes. Production values are amazingly lavish. Although there's plenty of vividly staged action, it is even more for its contemporary insight into London living in the truly horrifying nights of 1941-42, that merits Unpublished Story a top place in British cinema.

Richard Chatten The British wartime authorities' perennial obsession with fifth columnists ('enemy agents' were serving as baddies as early as the 1940 George Formby vehicle 'Let George Do It!') here finds elaborate expression in an ambitious production set in London during the Blitz. It took five credited writers to concoct this frequently hard to follow propaganda piece in which actual footage from the Blitz is adroitly combined with recreated studio footage. Censorship is benignly depicted as an essential part of the war effort (hence the title), while a pacifist organisation called 'People for Peace' is revealed to be not simply a Nazi front organisation run by British reactionaries but headed by authentic German 'sleepers' who privately converse among themselves in German. (With acts of terrorism in Europe by refugees from the Middle East now becoming almost everyday occurrences, the sequence depicting the arrival of a German agent masquerading as a Belgian refugee has disturbing contemporary resonances.)Richard Greene and Valerie Hobson are colourless leads, and dependable supporting actors like Basil Radford, Roland Culver and André Morell are generally given remarkably little to do; with the notable exception of Brefni O'Rorke as the editor of 'The Gazette', the newspaper the plot revolves around, who gets to deliver the film's stirring final speech at the fadeout.

mark.waltz That is the motive of British correspondents Valarie Hobson and Richard Greene in this newspaper war drama about the revelation that a supposed group of protesters for peace are actually a front for Nazi spies trying to stir up trouble in England. This takes place during the London blitz when nightly raids and bunkers for the protection of the people still out on the streets during an air raid was a regular occurrence. The blitz scenes are extremely realistic, especially one when Greene rescues Hobson from a phone booth while a nearby building is about to collapse. Basil Radford is excellent as a speaker of the peace convention who learns the truth about his leaders a bit too late. The cinema warned us about the enemy in our own camps many times on-screen, whether through newspaper dramas like this or the adventures of a gambler in "All Through the Night".

Terrell-4 An English journalist just back from Dunkirk writes a story blasting a London-based peace- in-our-time organization, but the story is killed by a government agency. Are there Nazi sympathizers or just cautious bureaucrats in the agency? Is the peace group led by innocent dupes or by ruthless Nazi agents? The reporter intends to find out.The movie isn't A-list, but it's better than a programmer. It's a craftsman-like piece of work. In feature roles are two first-rate British character actors, Roland Culver (The Pallisers, Dead of Night, On Approval) and Miles Malleson (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Man in the White Suit).