SEVEN SINNERS/DOOMED CARGO
UK, 1936, 69 minutes, Black-and-white.
Edmund Lowe, Constance Cummings, Thomy Bourdelle, Henry Oscar, Felix Aylmer, Joyce Kennedy, Mark Lester, James Harcourt.
Directed by Albert De Courville.
If this thriller is reminiscent of some of friend Hitchcock’s British films, this is correct. The writers, Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, wrote the screenplay of The Lady Vanishes and contributed to Jamaica Inn. They also wrote a number of thrillers including Night Train to Munich. And, in later life, wrote several of the St Trinians comedies.
The initial setting is a Nice, a festival, revelry and masks, an American private investigator (Edmund Lowe) drunk but finding a dead body in his room – reporting it, and the body had disappeared. He is also being sought by an insurance investigator from New York (Constance Cummings) – he is to help her in the investigation of stolen jewels in England.
This is also a train film – with two crashes, one using old footage from a silent film, The Wrecker, based on a play by Arnold Ridley who contributed to this film, and a later crash where the authorities authorised the smashing of an out of commission train.
The film gets quite complicated, as it should, with various leads, the body reappearing on the train, the investigating couple strong on clues, doing the research, this leading them to a pacifist charity group in a provincial town. The French Chief investigator also appears at the various scenes and makes a bet with the American as to whether he will solve the case or not.
There are a few more dead bodies as the investigators come nearer to the truth, uncovering the group which is involved in arms smuggling, their holding a meeting for contributors with a sinister character, seen already in London, posing as a Catholic priest.
Romance is in the air, of course, and a severe ending for the plotters. But, there is the revelation of who is the mastermind of the plot – not someone who was suspected at all by the investigators or the audience!
1. An enjoyable 1930s British action adventure? The settings in Nice? The train journeys? The British settings, London, the provincial town, the open road, trains? The special effects for train crashes?
2. The writers and the touches of Alfred Hitchcock British thrillers?
3. The introduction to John Harwood, the festival, drinking, the man with the mask, New York investigator, the dead body in the room, reporting, its disappearance? The French detective and the interactions between the two? The bet?
4. Introduction to Caryl Fenton, New York, contacting Harwood, collaborating with him, the stolen jewels? Her pursuit of her goal, intrigued by the clues, travelling with Harwood, becoming involved?
5. The battle of the sexes, banter between the couple, the prospect of romance?
6. The dead body on the train, the investigations, the French detective? Further deaths?
7. The couple following the clues, the interview with the businessman in London, his disappearance, the false information, the photo from the past dinner, identifying the character, discovering her whereabouts?
8. The introduction to the group, the personnel, respectable, the clergy? The rallies, financial support, the plan for the charitable goods to be transported? The revelation that this was a cover for arms smuggling? Various members of the gang – their being eliminated?
9. The buildup to a climax, unmasking the characters, the cover of the clergy, the links for the transport?
10. More travel by train, the crash, the deaths?
11. The French detective, his presence at all times – and final revelation?
