A.R. Rawlinson (1894–1984)

2023 movie #167. 1935. Hitchcock remade this movie in '55 with Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart. The '35 version has a great performance by Peter Lorre (as the bad guy of course). Apparently Lorre's 1st English role, he learned his lines phonetically. Pretty good film.

Strangely lacking in modulation. Characters' emotions barely flutter when they or their loved ones are threatened. Even a massive shootout is just a dragged out series of intermittent shots -- no escalation, no buildup; every once in a while someone drops dead. The 1956 version isn't my favorite Hitchcock, but it's a thousand times more kinetic.

Enemy spies kidnap a spy's friends' daughter.

Good. 75 minutes is the perfect length for this sort of movie.