An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation (it is included in the ‘The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made’ list selected by the New York Times, among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, the historical background around the making-off this movie was quite intriguing. Indeed, it was based on a book written before WWII actually started and even though the action was taking place in Germany and in the UK, it was actually made in the US while the war was raging in Europe. At the time, the US were still isolationist but most Hollywood studios were supporting the involvement of their country in the war resulting in such movies. Well, in spite of all this, to be honest, this movie didn’t really impress me though. I mean, I really enjoyed the first part which was taking place in Germany and during which this man hunt was actually quite thrilling. Unfortunately, as soon as the main character got back to England, it was much less effective though. Indeed, they basically chased the guy all the way to his home country just to have him sign some confession? It did sound rather far-fetched. To make things worse, the whole thing was completely derailed from the moment Thorndike met Jerry Stokes. I don’t blame Joan Bennett, she actually gave a solid performance but it didn’t make sense that her character would tag along for so long with Thorndike who was basically a wanted man. I mean, I understand that they wanted to give the main character some kind of love interest (nothing much happened between them after all though) but it's as if they tried to combine a thriller with a romantic comedy which wasn’t really the greatest idea. At least, I have to admit that Walter Pidgeon who was channeling some kind of combination of James Bond with George Clooney was really good here. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.