Warn That Man

This hilarious espionage comedy-thriller is adapted from a stage play by Vernon Sylvaine and involves a plan to kidnap non other than Prime Minister Winston Churchill – with the aid of some crafty German operatives.

All is not well when German paratroopers descend onto British soil, with the aim to take over Buckley Hall and kidnap Lord Buckley (Raymond Lovell). Reason being that Lord Buckley expects a high profile visitor who is none other than Winston Churchill. Of course, the plan is to kidnap him too!

In charge of the operation, at least on the English side, is Nazi agent Hausmann (also played by Raymond Lovell), a man as ruthless as he is hell bent on achieving mission impossible. After making it clear that nothing and no one will stand in his way, he and several of his German agents break into Buckley Hall, kidnap the lord of the manor and, because they are having so much fun with it, kidnap the staff too. Hausemann then transforms himself into Lord Buckley via make-up and mannerisms, whilst the other agents transform themselves into domestic servants. All are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Mr. Churchill.

Instead, some other visitors arrive first, namely guests that the real Lord Buckley had invited to come and join him. These are George Hawkins (professional Cockney Gordon Harker), Captain Andrew Fletcher (Finlay Currie), and dapper John Cooper (Philip Friend). In particular John is surprised that Buckley’s attractive niece Frances (Jean Kent) is nowhere to be seen to greet him. Then again, she can’t – she is hiding in the building having witnessed the earlier kidnapping of Lord Buckley and his staff.

Instead, the three guests are greeted and entertained by the fake Lord Buckley. At first, the evil plan seems to run smooth, but Hausmann clearly hasn’t done his homework proper. He drinks tipples that the real Buckley would never have touched, and behaves in ways that eventually make the guests suspicious. While the baffled trio try to find out what is really going on (and they do once they discover the first corpse), Frances manages to silently sneak out of the house and fetch much needed help. Just before Churchill arrives at Buckley Hall, the British army have managed to bring down the Nazi agents, and Frances is finally able to greet John properly…

Special Features on this DVD release are:

• Original theatrical programme in PDF format
• Instant play facility