The Next of Kin

The Next of Kin, also known as Next of Kin, is a 1942 Second World War propaganda film produced by Ealing Studios.

The film was originally commissioned by the British War Office as a training film to promote the government propaganda message that "Careless talk costs lives". After being taken on by Ealing Studios, the project was expanded and given a successful commercial release.

After the war and up until at least the mid 1960s, services in British Commonwealth countries continued to use The Next of Kin as part of security training.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Next_of_Kin

Plot[edit]

The British are preparing a secret raid on the German-held French coastal village of Norville, where a lightly defended submarine base has been newly set up. Major Richards is assigned as the security officer for the 95th Brigade, the unit chosen for the task. German intelligence learns that the 95th are being moved to Westport for training for some mission via Miss Clare, an attractive showgirl who has a talkative admirer in Lieutenant Cummins.

They send agents 23 and 16 to England to discover the intended target by piecing together information from different sources, including conversations overheard in pubs, railway stations, shops and other public places. 16 is caught when he claims to be a soldier with the same company as Private Durnford, but 23 reaches his contact, Mr Barratt, a bookseller at Westport. When Richards spots Miss Clare in a pub in Westport having a drink with Cummins, he has the police search her belongings, not expecting them to find anything. However, they discover spy equipment and she is arrested. Agent 23 witnesses this and departs hastily, having already come to the attention of Richards. Barratt assigns him to 16's job, to infiltrate an ordnance depot. After he helps an ATS driver with a punctured tyre, she invites him to a dance. There he learns that the 95th have top priority for special equipment.

Certain that the mission is imminent and without any agents to spare, Barratt forces his employee, Dutch refugee Beppie Leemans, to take on the task of finding out where and when the 95th are going from her soldier boyfriend in exchange for the safety of her parents in German-occupied Holland. She informs him that the 95th are expecting aerial photographs. Barratt sends 23 to London to contact another agent to try to obtain the photographs. When Leemans realises the seriousness of what she has done, she stabs Barratt to death, but 23 returns unexpectedly and knocks her out. He then turns on the gas and makes it look like a murder–suicide. An agent manages to steal the briefcase containing an aerialnegative, carelessly left unattended at a cafe by a wing commander. The officer believes his briefcase was taken by mistake and is relieved when it is returned to the cafe (after a photograph is developed). The photograph is smuggled to German intelligence and used to identify the 95th's objective. As a result, the Germans are waiting in ambush.

Originally, the commando raid depicted was intended to be a complete failure. However, the War Office were uncomfortable about showing such a defeat. In the final version, the raid is successful, albeit with heavy losses. Winston Churchillreportedly wanted the film banned as a threat to morale, but was eventually persuaded of the importance of its message.

Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne appear in cameos at the end of the film as two "careless talkers" on a train, in the same compartment as 23. The two men made many appearances together in British films of the 1940s, following their successful pairing as "Charters and Caldicott" in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.

Cast[edit]

• Mervyn Johns as No 23, Mr "Arthur Davis"

• Selected films[edit]

  • Lady in Danger (1934) as Reporter
  • The Guv'nor (1935) as Bank Director (uncredited)
  • Foreign Affaires (1935) as Courtroom interpreter
  • Pot Luck (1936) as Night Watchman (uncredited)
  • In the Soup (1936) as Meakin (uncredited)
  • Everything Is Thunder (1936) as Karl - Waiter (uncredited)
  • Dishonour Bright (1936) as French Postcard Seller (uncredited)
  • Song of the Forge (1937) (uncredited)
  • Storm in a Teacup (1937) as Court Bailiff (uncredited)
  • Night Ride (1937) as Trapped Miner (uncredited)
  • The Last Curtain (1937) as Hemp
  • Almost a Gentleman (1938) as Percival Clicker
  • Jamaica Inn (1939) as Thomas - Sir Humphrey's Gang
  • The Midas Touch (1940) (uncredited)
  • Convoy (1940) as His Mate
  • Girl in the News (1940) as James Fetherwood
  • Saloon Bar (1940) as Wickers
  • The Next of Kin (1942) as No 23: Mr Davis
  • The Foreman Went to France(1942) as Official, Passport Office (uncredited)
  • Went the Day Well? (1942) as Charlie Sims
  • The Bells Go Down (1943) as Sam
  • My Learned Friend (1943) as Grimshaw
  • San Demetrio London (1943) as Greaser John Boyle
  • The Halfway House (1944) as Rhys
  • Twilight Hour (1945) as Major John Roberts
  • Dead of Night (1945) as Walter Craig
  • Pink String and Sealing Wax(1945) as Mr.Sutton
  • They Knew Mr. Knight (1946) as Tom Blake
  • The Captive Heart (1946) as Pte. Evans
  • Captain Boycott (1947) as Watty Connell
  • Easy Money (1948) as Herbert Atkins
  • Counterblast (1948) as Dr. Bruckner the Beast of Ravensbruck
  • Quartet (1948) as Samuel Sunbury (segment "The Kite")
  • Edward, My Son (1949) as Harry Sempkin
  • Helter Skelter (1949) as Ernest Bennett
  • Diamond City (1949) as Hart
  • Tony Draws a Horse (1950) as Alfred Parsons
  • Scrooge (1951) as Bob Cratchit
  • The Magic Box (1951) as Goitz
  • The Tall Headlines (1952) as Uncle Ted
  • The Oracle (1953) as Tom Mitchum
  • Valley of Song (1953) as Minister Griffiths
  • The Master of Ballantrae (1953) as MacKellar
  • Romeo and Juliet (1954) as Friar Laurence
  • The Blue Peter (1955) as Captain Snow
  • 1984 (1956) as Jones
  • The Intimate Stranger (1956) as Ernest Chaple
  • Moby Dick (1956) as Peleg
  • The Shield of Faith (1956)
  • Find the Lady (1956) as Hurst
  • The Counterfeit Plan (1957) as Louie Bernard
  • Doctor at Large (1957) as Smith
  • The Vicious Circle (1957) as Dr. George Kimber
  • The Surgeon's Knife (1957) as Mr. Waring
  • The Gypsy and the Gentleman(1958) as Brook
  • The Devil's Disciple (1959) as Rev. Maindeck Parshotter
  • Danger List (1959) as Mr. Ellis
  • Once More, with Feeling! (1960) as Mr. Wilbur Jr.
  • Never Let Go (1960) as Alfie Barnes
  • The Sundowners (1960) as Jack Patchogue, mayor of Cawndilla
  • No Love for Johnnie (1961) as Charlie Young
  • The Rebel (1961) as Manager of Art Gallery, London
  • Francis of Assisi (1961) as Brother Juniper
  • Echo of Barbara (1961) as Sam Roscoe
  • The Day of the Triffids (1962) as Mr. Coker
  • 55 Days at Peking (1963) as Clergyman
  • 80,000 Suspects (1963) as Buckridge
  • The Old Dark House (1963) as Potiphar Femm
  • The Victors (1963) as Dennis
  • A Jolly Bad Fellow (1964) as Willie Pugh-Smith
  • The Heroes of Telemark (1965) as Col. Wilkinson
  • Who Killed the Cat? (1966) as Henry Fawcett
  • The National Health (1973) as Rees
  • House of Mortal Sin (1976) as Father Duggan
• John Chandos as No 16

• Filmography[edit]

  • 49th Parallel (1941) - Lohrmann
  • The Next of Kin (1942) - No 16: his contact
  • The First of the Few (1942) - Krantz
  • The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947) - Employment Agent (uncredited)
  • The Secret People (1952) - John
  • Derby Day (1952) - Man on Train (uncredited)
  • The Crimson Pirate (1952) - Stub Ear
  • Trent's Last Case (1952) - Tim O'Reilly (uncredited)
  • The Long Memory (1952) - Boyd
  • 36 Hours (1953) - Orville Hart
  • The Love Lottery (1954) - Gulliver Kee
  • The Million Pound Note (1954) - 2nd Businessman at Bumbles Hotel (uncredited)
  • Beau Brummell (1954) - Silva (uncredited)
  • Carrington V.C. (1955) - Adjutant John Rawlinson
  • Simba (1955) - Settler at Meeting
  • The Ship That Died of Shame (1955) - Raines
  • One Way Out (1955) - Danvers
  • The Green Man (1956) - McKechnie
  • The Battle of the River Plate (1956) - Dr. Otto Langmann - German Minister, Montevideo
  • Time Without Pity (1957) - First Journalist
  • Doctor at Large (1957) - O'Malley
  • I Accuse! (1958) - Drumont
  • The Witness (1959) - Lodden
  • Jungle Street (1960) - Jacko Fielding
  • The Little Ones (1965) - Lord Brantley
  • Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969) - Advertising Executive (Last appearance)
• Nova Pilbeam as Beppie Leemans

• Filmography[edit]

  • Little Friend (1934)
  • The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
  • Tudor Rose (1936)
  • Young and Innocent (1937)
  • Cheer Boys Cheer (1939)
  • Pastor Hall (1940)
  • Spring Meeting (1941)
  • Banana Ridge (1942)
  • The Next of Kin (1942)
  • Yellow Canary (1943)
  • This Man is Mine (1946)
  • Green Fingers (1947)
  • Counterblast (1948)
  • The Three Weird Sisters (1948)
• Reginald Tate as Major Richards

• Selected filmography[edit]

  • Tangled Evidence (1934) - Ellaby
  • Whispering Tongues (1934) - Alan Norton
  • The Riverside Murder (1935) - Hubert Perrin
  • The Phantom Light (1935) - Tom Evans
  • The Man Behind the Mask (1936) - Allan Hayden
  • Dark Journey (1937) - Mate of Q-Boat
  • For Valour (1937) - Chester
  • Too Dangerous to Live (1939) - Collins
  • Poison Pen (1939) - Rev. Rider
  • It Happened to One Man (1940) - Ackroyd
  • The Next of Kin (1942) - Maj. Richards
  • The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) - van Zijl
  • The Way Ahead (1944) - The Training Company Commanding Officer
  • Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) - Ackroyd
  • The Man from Morocco (1945) - Ricardi
  • Journey Together (1945) - Commanding Officer, Initial Training Wing
  • So Well Remembered (1947) - Trevor Mangin
  • Uncle Silas (1947) - Austin Ruthyn
  • Noose (1948) - Editor
  • Diamond City (1949) - Longdon
  • Midnight Episode (1950) - Inspector Lucas
  • Secret People (1952) - Inspector Eliot
  • The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) - Hugh Fitzooth
  • Escape Route (1952) - Colonel Wilkes
  • Malta Story (1953) - Vice Adm Payne
  • King's Rhapsody (1955) - King Peter
  • Hotel Incident (1962) - Brown - the Commander (Last appearance)
• Stephen Murray as Mr Barratt

• Selected filmography[edit]

  • Pygmalion (1938)
  • The Prime Minister (1941)
  • Undercover (1943)
  • London Belongs to Me (1948)
  • Silent Dust (1949)
  • For Them That Trespass (1949)
  • The Magnet (1950)
  • Four Sided Triangle (1953)
  • At the Stroke of Nine (1957)
  • The Nun's Story (1959)
  • Master Spy (1964)
• Jack Hawkins as Brigade Major Harcourt (billed as 2nd Lt. Jack Hawkins)

• Filmography[edit]

  • Birds of Prey (1930) as Alfred
  • The Lodger (1932) as John Martin
  • The Good Companions (1933) as Albert
  • The Lost Chord (1933) as Sr. Jim Selby
  • I Lived with You (1933) as Mort
  • The Jewel (1933) as Peter Roberts
  • A Shot in the Dark (1933) as Norman Paull
  • Autumn Crocus (1934) as Alaric
  • Death at Broadcasting House (1934) as Herbert Evans
  • Lorna Doone (1934) as Member of the Court (uncredited)
  • Peg of Old Drury (1935) as Michael O'Taffe
  • Beauty and the Barge (1937) as Lt. Seton Boyne
  • The Frog (1937) as Capt. Gordon
  • Who Goes Next? (1938) as Capt. Beck
  • A Royal Divorce (1938) as Capt. Charles
  • Murder Will Out (1939) as Stamp
  • The Flying Squad (1940) as Mark McGill
  • The Next of Kin (1942) as Brigade Major Harcourt
  • The Fallen Idol (1948) as Detective Ames
  • Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948) as Lord George Murray
  • The Small Back Room (1949) as R.B. Waring
  • State Secret (1950) as Colonel Galcon
  • The Black Rose (1950) as Tristram Griffin
  • The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) as Prince of Wales / Footpad attacking Lord Anthony
  • The Adventurers (1951) as Pieter Brandt
  • No Highway in the Sky (1951) as Dennis Scott
  • Home at Seven (1952) as Dr. Sparling
  • Angels One Five (1952) as Group Capt. 'Tiger' Small
  • Mandy (1952) as Dick Searle
  • The Planter's Wife (1952) as Jim Frazer
  • The Cruel Sea (1953) as Ericson
  • Malta Story (1953) as Air CO Frank
  • Twice Upon a Time (1953) as Dr. Mathews
  • The Intruder (1953) as Wolf Merton
  • Front Page Story (1954) as Grant
  • The Seekers (1954) as Phillip Wayne
  • The Prisoner (1955) as The Interrogator
  • Land of the Pharaohs (1955) as Pharaoh Khufu
  • Touch and Go (1955) as Jim Fletcher
  • The Long Arm (1956) as Detective-Superintendent Tom Halliday
  • The Man in the Sky (1957) as John Mitchell
  • Fortune Is a Woman (1957) as Oliver Branwell
  • The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) as Major Warden
  • Gideon's Day (USA title: Gideon of Scotland Yard) (1958) as Detective Chief Inspector George Gideon
  • The Two-Headed Spy (1958) as Gen. Alex Schottland
  • Ben-Hur (1959) as Quintus Arrius
  • The League of Gentlemen (1960) as Col. Norman Hyde
  • Lafayette (1961) as General Cornwallis
  • Two Loves (1961) as William W.J. Abercrombie
  • Five Finger Exercise (1962) as Stanley Harrington
  • Lawrence of Arabia (1962) as General Allenby
  • Rampage (1963) as Otto Abbot
  • Zulu (1964) as Otto Witt
  • The Third Secret (1964) as Sir Frederick Belline
  • Guns at Batasi (1964) as Colonel Deal
  • Lord Jim (1965) as Marlow
  • Masquerade (1965) as Colonel Drexel
  • Judith (1966) as Major Lawton
  • Danger Grows Wild (1966) as General Bahar
  • Stalked (short) (1968) as The Man
  • Shalako (1968) as Sir Charles Daggett
  • Great Catherine (1968) as The British Ambassador
  • Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) as Emperor Franz Joseph
  • Monte Carlo or Bust (1969) as Count Levinovitch
  • Twinky (1970) as Judge Millington-Draper
  • The Adventures of Gerard (1970) as Marshal Millefleurs
  • Waterloo (1970) as General Sir Thomas Picton
  • Jane Eyre (1970) as Mr. Brocklehurst
  • The Beloved (1971) as Father Nicholas
  • When Eight Bells Toll (1971) as Sir Anthony Skouras
  • Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) as Count Fredericks
  • Kidnapped (1971) as Captain Hoseason
  • The Last Lion(1972) as Ryk Mannering
  • Young Winston (1972) as Mr. Welldon
  • Escape to the Sun(1972) as Baburin
  • Theatre of Blood (1973) as Solomon Psaltery
  • Tales That Witness Madness (1973) as Dr. Nicholas
• Geoffrey Hibbert as Private John
• Philip Friend as Lieutenant Cummins
• Phyllis Stanley as Miss Clare
• Mary Clare as Mrs. Webster
• Basil Sydney as a naval captain
• Joss Ambler as Mr Vemon
• Brefni O'Rorke as Brigadier
• Alexander Field as Private Durnford
• David Hutcheson as an intelligence officer
• Torin Thatcher as a German general
• Thora Hird as an ATS driver with a puncture

The Next of Kin
Directed by	Thorold Dickinson
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Written by	Basil Bartlett Thorold Dickinson John Dighton Angus MacPhail
Starring	Mervyn Johns Nova Pilbeam Reginald Tate John Chandos Stephen Murray Jack Hawkins
Music by	William Walton
Cinematography	Ernest Palmer
Edited by	Ray Pitt
Distributed by	Ealing Studios
Release dates	15 June 1942
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£50,000

[hide] v t e Films directed by Thorold Dickinson
The First Mrs. Fraser (1932) Java Head (1934) The High Command (1938) The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939) Gaslight (1940) The Prime Minister (1941) The Next of Kin (1942) Men of Two Worlds (1946) The Queen of Spades (1949) Secret People (1952) Hill 24 Doesn't Answer (1955)