They Met in the Dark

1945
6.2| 1h31m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 22 May 1945 Released
Producted By: Marcel Hellman Productions
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A Royal navy Commander is tricked by a pretty girl who is working for the Nazis. She tricks him into revealing some military secrets and he is court martial. He vows to track her and her accomplices down.

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Director

Karel Lamač

Production Companies

Marcel Hellman Productions

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They Met in the Dark Audience Reviews

Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch
FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** We see an almost unidentifiable looking James Mason wearing what looks like a cheap clip-on beard as British Naval officer Richard Heritage get canned from the Royal Navy for having his ship with all aboard sunk by a Nazi U-Boat because of not following the instructions he was given. It turns out that the orders that Heritage was given was switched by a pro-German spy while he was having a few drinks at a local pub.It's when Heratige tracks down the mysterious but now dead bar girl at a sleazebag hotel in the country he runs into Canadian Laura Verity, Joyce Howard,who was visiting her sick uncle at the very same hotel room who feels that he in fact murdered her. This has Laura on the run feeling that she'll end up being Heritage's next victim. It doesn't take long for Heritage to convince Laura with his good looks and British manners, as well as puppy dog brown eyes, that he's on the up and up and not the cold blooded killer that she thinks he is. It's then that Laura with Heritage's urging who then gets a job as a singer and dancer at the place that the murdered bar girl last worked for "The Child Talent Agency" run by Christopher Child, Tom Well. It's Well who was using it as cover for his Nazi Liverpool spy ring!***SPOILERS**** Not much if any action for a film supporting the allied war effort at the height of WWII but more like a 1930's screwball comedy instead.It's later in the movie that were told, by the Royal Navy officials, that Heritage was in fact an innocent stooge made to look like he screwed things up so the Nazis won't take him seriously. The fact that Laura came into the picture or movie made things that much more complicated for the British who now had two people to save from the Nazis one-Richard Heritage- who had some idea of what was going on in the movie and another-Laura Verity-who was totally clueless!P.S Breath taking performance by the great Ronald Chesley who steals the show as he blows everyone away and off their feet as the film's show stopping main attraction "Max the Mouth" the wild & crazy harmonica player.
malcolmgsw This spy film seems to have used every cliché from spy films made earlier in World War 2.In particular it seems to have taken much of the story line of "Let George Do It".In particular it uses the encoding of messages into music.There is the fake court martial ling of Mason,the drugging of a signals officer and a spy ring in a port,and of course the obligatory missing corpse.All done in a most lacklustre fashion.At just over 90 minutes the story drags along.Compare it with Hitchcocks " Saboteur" made the same year in Hollywood.It looks as if the film was originally longer but was cut before release.i was looking forward to seeing George Robey but his scenes as a pawnbroker were obviously cut.I think that Mason should have based his character on Formby's so he could have ended the film with a cheerful "turned out nice again".
blanche-2 The career that James Mason had before being discovered by Hollywood was quite prolific. Thanks to TCM, audiences have had the opportunity to see some of his British films. This one, "They Met in the Dark," is a 1943 noir, and has both elements of drama and humor. The film begins with a trial, after which, found guilty of treason, Richard Heritage (Mason) is stripped of rank and thrown out of the Navy. He sets out, with one of his crew who believes in him, to prove his innocence. He backtracks, repeating his actions from the day he was arrested.He finds one woman (Patricia Medina) dead, another woman (Joyce Howard) positive that he had something to do with it, and a talent agent (Tom Walls) who has some interesting acts on his roster as well as a sophisticated singer (Phyllis Stanley).Mason is handsome, elegant, and vital in the lead role. He handles the lighter moments very well and has lots of charm. It's easy to see why he eventually went to Hollywood. Stanley does some nice singing, and Ronald Chesney plays a great harmonica.Different and enjoyable, with a good plot and British atmosphere that will keep the viewer interested.
robert-temple-1 This is an entertaining if uninspired wartime espionage yarn. It contains a fine and energetic performance by James Mason, full of vigour and fully believing in what he is doing. He even manages to deliver convincingly the inane line to Joyce Howard, the heroine, 'I love you', despite the fact that he barely knows her and could not possibly love her. The romantic elements of this story are too ludicrous for comment. This is the third and mercifully the last of the story ideas of Basil Bartlett which were filmed. (His 'Secret Mission' was so terrible it was one of the worst films ever made.) Sir Basil was the stepfather of my friend Annabel. Sorry, Annabel. There is a strong Czech component to the film. The director, Karel Lamac, was a Czech refugee, and apart from Mason, the main performance is by the talented Czech refugee actor, Karel Stepanek, who does extremely well, as usual, and raises the tone considerably. Joyce Howard's fluttery helplessness and bone-headed character may have been typical of women in 1943, but God have mercy on us poor viewers. A spectacular element in this film, which makes it worth seeing, is the incredible harmonica playing by Ronald Chesney, who only appeared in three films and is featured a lot here. Larry Adler eat your heart out (if Larry were still here, that is). Alvar Liddell, the famous wartime radio announcer, makes his first film appearance here, for all of ten seconds. At least Finlay Currie got 20 seconds. Someone savagely cut this film prior to release, as chasms occur in the continuity of fairly mammoth proportions. It is 95 minutes and must have been 110 when the director delivered it. This will keep an undemanding viewer entertained on a rainy afternoon. I had to get the DVD from Germany (where it is known as 'Spionagering'), turn off the dubbed German soundtrack, and listen to the original, which is preserved. The things one does to see these rarities!