Conny and Valerie II - Contraband (1940), BFI, Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell + Pressburger

Powell and Pressburger’s second film was also their second with Conrad Veidt and intended to be a follow-up to their first, The Spy in Black (1939). Released in May 1940, it was a propaganda film aimed at highlighting Britain’s readiness for action during what was still The Phoney War, with volunteer sailors beefing up the Royal Navy to help in protecting out extended coastlines and preventing the wrong kind of goods, contraband, from ending up in enemy hands.

It's a stirring film that also re-unites Veidt with his SIB co-star, the vibrant Valerie Hobson and for both Powell quotes Pressburger as having written “… two stunning parts… which they simply could not refuse, even if England were to be invaded the next morning.” It’s another one of those films in which Hungarian and Kentish humour percolates through and the two leads are entangled in a sure fire rom-com scenario from their meet-cute when Valerie’s Mrs. Sorensen refuses to put her life jacket on only to be threatened with being put in irons by Veidt’s Danish merchant seaman Captain Andersen. He might be joking but don’t worry fans of human bondage, they’ll be tied up together later in the film.

Hobson has been a revelation to me, I’m way behind on 30s-40s British film, and although I have seen her in Great Expectations and Kind Hearts and I know that she had a very unfortunate second marriage to a certain John Profumo, whom she never gave up on. Here she is just about 23 and for a girl from County Antrim, sounding very English, and matching the embodiment of Weimar cinema, 47, blow for blow as the kind of confident female lead war seems to bring out in British cinema: she can look after herself, is forthright and decisive and only gets caught by the Captain if she wants to.

Conrad Veidt

This season is also highlighting Pressburger’s writing – I know, I know, late to the party… - with the programme notes quoting Powell’s A Life in Film and Emeric’s grandsons providing ample evidence of the family skillset: they’re both filmmakers of note. Having now seen 11 of the surviving 13 Powell “quota quickies” you can appreciate the impact the Hungarian had on their collaborations. Certainly, Spy in Black showed his instant success in turning a predictable story into an exciting one with edgy male and female leads. Powell appreciated Pressburger’s novelistic range and there’s no doubt that he fills his characters with so much personality and purpose his decade in German film being well spent.

The film moves quickly and manages to balance its drama with a light touch and it’s great to see Veidt in such a role, cracking jokes, being somewhat relaxed and playing a hero for once. His freighter Helvig is stopped in the channel by the Royal Navy who send them for cargo inspection at what were termed Contraband Control Ports. All his well but their cargo full of iodine is “contraband” and has to be cleared before they can proceed to Denmark. They must wait a night in port and, as Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin would later demonstrate, a lot can happen to a sailor in just a few hours on shore.

Valerie Hobson in a hat

Firstly, the troublesome Mrs. Sorensen steals Anderson’s landing passes along with and spivvy “talent scout” called Mr Pidgeon (Esmond Knight). Knowing he’ll be in a lot of trouble without them, he sets off with first mate Axel Skold (Hay Petrie), to track them down to London via the train to Victoria. He finds both on the train and, after Pidgeon flies away, sticks to Mrs S like a glue man.

 

From this point the film becomes something of a travelogue for London in the Blackout, with the couple eventually united and trying to find their way across town using torches and taxis in a shadowed capital bracing itself for what may come. Mrs S has had a very suspicious phone call with her Aunt in Chester Square, filmed in that very square, and there’s more geography to come as Anderson takes his new companion to dine at the restaurant of Skold's brother Erik (also Hay Petrie), where there’s lots of funny business as Danish food is delivered in copious amounts and the Captain explains the significance of his fob watch and its Danish sailor song. The characters are rooted in another country, neutral at this time, which, all things considered, is odd. But they knew what they were doing.

 

Our heroes are tied up at the moment.

All the while the Captain is checking this watch as the clock counts down on the train they must catch at Victoria but they soon find themselves with even more serious worries when they are captured at her aunt’s house by a group of German spies led by Van Dyne (Raymond Lovell), who knows Mrs. Sorensen is a British spy after an incident in Düsseldorf. Away to the elaborate hide out where the interrogation begins as Van Dyne tries to establish ways of making our girl talk.

 

Powell marvelled at Alfred Junge’s work on the set for this hideout and the final third of the film is played out here as our heroes try to escape and prevent the German’s from spreading deadly misinformation. After the two escape they enlist his countrymen from the restaurant to try and locate the secret base, knowing it’s next to a cabaret with a singing man playing a ukelele and in a certain direction based on Anderson’s reading of the stars… they pore over the map calling out locations from Piccadilly to Soho; the old town ain’t changed that much! All is set for a fast-paced finale and lots of West End frolics, one of which originally featured a young Deborah Kerr as a cigarette girl… Mickey was suitably impressed.

 

There's also some very funny business in the workshop next to the hideout where busts of Neville Chamberlain are manufactured. As Powell said, Mr Peace in Our Time was already a laughing stock by ths stage and the delays in the film's release only increased the dark humour of the former Prime Minister's likeness being shot at by enemy agents and, when he uses one to knock out one of the baddies, Veidt says "they always said he was tough..."

Pieces in our time... Neville and Conny

Contraband is less cohesive than The Spy in Black, and less suspenseful but it’s still enjoyable given the two leads chance to play off each other and for the writer and director to evolve their technique. It’s another step on the way to the more playful and deeper efforts of Blimp and Canterbury but the War was just starting as were the Archers. Next up was a hugely successful diversion, Korda’s epic The Thief of Bagdad (1940) for which Powell directed most of the action sequences and the famous Genie section, along with several others as production was switched to the US following the outbreak of the Blitz. There was nothing phoney about the war from this point onwards and the cinema had to reflect this more and more.

Andrew Moor argues in Powell and Pressburger, a Cinema of Magic Spaces, that these early films show a more Germanic influence, unsurprisingly given Pressburger’ s background and Powell’s time at UFA, and even treat British soil as “alien”, certainly for the main protagonists. Only after the war progressed do the two start addressing Britain as “home”, given the needs of a patriotic industry supporting the home front. That said, this England and Scotland, will be one full of strangeness and wonder and there will always be sympathetic, humanity from around the globe, friends and enemies alike.

An expressionist flurry as Conrad awakes from a dream

Ice cool as the Nazi spies put the pressure on

Imperious

Hay Petrie in hospitality mode.

The film was called Blackout in the US, which Powell preferred.