Tonight’s film is from 1943 and was for me a recent and very welcome find. ‘The Yellow Canary’ is a rip roaring drama with a whole host of twists and turns set in Britain, at Sea and in Canada.

The Yellow Canary’s plot centres around, Sally Maitland, played by Anna Neagle, the adult daughter of a prominent British family who has it seems seriously gone off the rails. She is a hate figure to the public due to her sympathy for the Nazis and she is referred to by one character as a potential ‘18b’ this being the designation given to interned Nazi sympathisers at the time.

Maitland is shipped off by the Government to Canada in order to get this person out of the way and not able to impede the war effort. A naval officer, Leuitenant Commander Jim Garrick, played by Richard Greene, is tasked with watching Maitland both on her trip across the Atlantic, and whilst Maitland is in Canada. Garrick is told not to disclose to Maitland that he is a navel intelligence operative and to travel on the ship with her to Canada incognito posing as plain Mr Garrick.

Garrick watches Maitland during the trip and when she arrives in Canada and quickly realises that he is involved in a game where not everyone may be on the same ideological side as they seem. Garrick also uncovers a great threat to the Empire’s ability to fight the war in Europe and it becomes a race against time to stop that threat.

I really enjoyed this movie with it’s many twists and turns. The leading actors played their parts well and there are some interesting cameos from actors and actresses who are well known in their own right such as Margaret Rutherford. Older British readers may also recognise the face of Cyril Fletcher who read out odd odes and funny stories on Esther Rantzens ‘That’s Life’ programme in the 1970’s as the entertainer who appears in the early part of the film.

I hope you all enjoy this movie as much as I did.

PS This appears to be a VHS version of the movie and there is a ten second drop out about a quarter of the way into the film. Don’t worry the movie does return