GB
1944
18mins
Dir: Henry Cass
Starring: Jimmy Hanley and Dinah Sheridan
Scraps of information are gathered and pieced together by an enemy who lurks in the shadows
This short propaganda piece was produced by the Ministry of Information as a Naval Instructional film, and features newly married Jimmy Hanley and Dinah Sheridan as the main characters, in reality a couple who had been married two years already by the time of its release. It covers the famous “careless talk costs lives” mantra, even though by this stage of the war, Nazi Germany would have gained more information by intercepting radio traffic than overhearing loose tongues. Nonetheless, it served as a timely reminder in a conflict that was beginning to turn in favour of the Allies. The film features quite a bit of railway traffic, all of which is quite dark as the shots appear to have been filmed ‘day-for-night’, yet most of these are still largely identifiable. Save for a departure scene that uses LNER teak coaching stock all the others show trains on the LMS network, hauled by a ‘Jubilee’ 4-6-0, a ‘Compound’ 4-4-0, an unidentified 2-6-4T, and a ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 respectively. There is also a very dark shot of a passing van train but not much can be made of this.
