The Next of Kin **** (1942, Mervyn Johns, John Chandos, Nova Pilbeam, Stephen Murray) – Classic Movie Review 8164

Director Thorold Dickinson’s fascinating 1942 British black and white World War Two wartime propaganda thriller, about careless talk costing lives, was expanded by Ealing Studios from an army training film commissioned by the British War Office.

The Next of Kin tells an unsettling story about an English-born German spy Mr Davis (Mervyn Johns) infiltrating himself into an area of the British coast, and shows the simple way that he is able to ruin a secret commando raid on France by overhearing gossip from a housewife about what her son is doing in the war.

The Next of Kin is handled effectively as both entertainment and propaganda by Dickinson. It was made at the invitation of the British War Office, who put up a small amount of the backing. But Ealing Studios had to change the ending when Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to ban the film as a threat to national morale.

Also in the cast are John Chandos as Mr Davis’s contact No 16, Nova Pilbeam as Beppie Leemans, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Murray, David Hutcheson, Reginald Tate, Basil Radford as careless talker on train (last scene), Naunton Wayne as careless talker on train (last scene), Geoffrey Hibbert, Mary Clare, Philip Friend, Basil Sydney, Brefni O’Rorke, Frederick Leister, Charles Victor, Torin Thatcher, Phyllis Stanley, Thora Hird, Joss Ambler, Alexander Field, Owen Reynolds, Sandra Storme, Frank Allenby, Pat Hagan, Peter de Greff, Guy Maas, Richard Norris, Victor Beaumont, Ian Fleming, Mary Malcolm, Charles Rolfe, George Street, H Victor Weske, John Williams, Guy Verney, William Walton (Soldier at Security Briefing) and Johnnie Schofield.

The Next of Kin is directed by Thorold Dickinson, runs 102 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios and Army Kinematograph Service, is released by United Artists (1942) (UK) and Universal Pictures (1943) (US), is written by Thorold Dickinson, Angus MacPhail, John Dighton and Basil Bartlett, is shot in black and white by Ernest Palmer, is produced by Michael Balcon and S C Balcon, is scored by William Walton and is designed by Thomas N Morahan.

The film continued to be used as part of services security training up till the mid-Sixties in British Commonwealth countries.

In the US version, FBI director J Edgar Hoover is the narrator of the prologue and epilogue.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8164

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