Exciting British thriller that puts us beneath the storm cloud of the early days of World War II. You can smell the tension. The setting is the previous year when Britain and France were on the very tip of the edge of the brink of war with Germany. It’s a film that turns newspaper headlines into pulp thrills. A Czech scientist who’s created the world’s newest, strongest armor-plating MacGuffin is a hot commodity to sinister Nazi kidnappers, as well as to the more suave British side as represented by charmer Rex Harrison. The race is on with disguises, gunplay, narrow escapes and some dry comic relief from the team of Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne that fits neatly into the film’s tidy suspense story architecture. Director Carol Reed is still working toward the elegance that he’d later achieve in The Third Man, but is no slouch here as a slinger of brisk entertainment. The storytelling is a model of economy. Everything here counts toward the sharpening of the blade. His action-packed climax is good stuff while the earlier, more quiet moments where facial expressions and offhand remarks provide the twists are even more delicious.