Communist agents trail an important scientist to try to steal his top-secret new formula.Communist agents trail an important scientist to try to steal his top-secret new formula.Communist agents trail an important scientist to try to steal his top-secret new formula.
Lisa Daniely
- Nurse Mitzi
- (as Lisa Danielly)
William Baskiville
- Police Officer
- (uncredited)
Jim Brady
- Balinkev's Thug
- (uncredited)
Robert Bruce
- Scotland Yard Detective
- (uncredited)
Dan Cressey
- Police Officer
- (uncredited)
Alex Graham
- Waiter
- (uncredited)
Alastair Hunter
- Publican
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe final film of Ella Raines.
- GoofsA montage showing a newspaper with a headline questioning whether Paxton's death is a hoax is a copy of THE EVENING NEWS, but the presses running in the background are clearly printing NEWS OF THE WORLD.
- Quotes
Ivan Mason: Goodbye Mrs Lemmin, I'm sure I was very happy with you.
Mrs. Lemmin - the Landlady: Oh you were. You were very regular with your rent. We never had a cross word - only about the ottoman and that's gone!
Featured review
Minor British spy thriller with some noir twists
After an introductory scene in which a car is waylaid on a narrow English country lane, a corpse substituted for the driver and the car doused with gasoline and set on fire, a man (Derek Farr) wakes up in a private hospital.
His amiable but vaguely sinister attending physician, Prof. Cattrell (Donald Wolfit) tells the man that he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident, and his name -- according to the wallet found in his suit -- is Ivan Mason.
There's just one problem: Mason can't remember his past. Or rather, what he does remember doesn't jibe with who they tell him he is, and every time he has one of these "false" memories he gets a blinding headache. Mason slowly begins to suspect there's something not quite right going on, even as Cattrell confronts him with all sorts of evidence that he really is Mason.
Both the amnesia and the headaches are the results of Cattrell's hypnosis, as part of a devious Commie plot to get Mason -- in actuality a top nuclear physicist -- to voluntarily go to Russia. Where, of course, his amnesia will be "cured" and all his nuclear secrets extracted.
Although when you think about it, the plan seems both cumbersome and far-fetched, the players make it look fairly convincing. One of the great things about these British B films is the level of acting talent they could draw on for supporting characters, actors like Wolfit and Cyril Cusack and Karel Stepanek. Sure, the leading man is rather wooden, but strikingly beautiful Ella Raines (in what was, sadly, her last big-screen appearance) more than compensates for Farr's deficiencies.
Stanley Pavey's black-and-white cinematography is crisply competent, with plenty of shadows and low angle shots to instill an appropriately paranoid atmosphere.
This is a distinctly minor thriller, compared to the likes of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", but still, it has its moments, and (mostly) manages to hold the viewer's interest until the end.
His amiable but vaguely sinister attending physician, Prof. Cattrell (Donald Wolfit) tells the man that he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident, and his name -- according to the wallet found in his suit -- is Ivan Mason.
There's just one problem: Mason can't remember his past. Or rather, what he does remember doesn't jibe with who they tell him he is, and every time he has one of these "false" memories he gets a blinding headache. Mason slowly begins to suspect there's something not quite right going on, even as Cattrell confronts him with all sorts of evidence that he really is Mason.
Both the amnesia and the headaches are the results of Cattrell's hypnosis, as part of a devious Commie plot to get Mason -- in actuality a top nuclear physicist -- to voluntarily go to Russia. Where, of course, his amnesia will be "cured" and all his nuclear secrets extracted.
Although when you think about it, the plan seems both cumbersome and far-fetched, the players make it look fairly convincing. One of the great things about these British B films is the level of acting talent they could draw on for supporting characters, actors like Wolfit and Cyril Cusack and Karel Stepanek. Sure, the leading man is rather wooden, but strikingly beautiful Ella Raines (in what was, sadly, her last big-screen appearance) more than compensates for Farr's deficiencies.
Stanley Pavey's black-and-white cinematography is crisply competent, with plenty of shadows and low angle shots to instill an appropriately paranoid atmosphere.
This is a distinctly minor thriller, compared to the likes of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", but still, it has its moments, and (mostly) manages to hold the viewer's interest until the end.
helpful•90
- henri sauvage
- Sep 8, 2010
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Der Mann der sich selbst verlor
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 23 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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