Laurence Olivier:International Man of Action!!

[Deej]

I caught the movie "Clouds over Europe"on FLIX this morning. It concerns an enemy plot in which nefarious spies use a special ray(kind of a 30's EMP bomb) to bring down experimental aircraft in the hopes of stealing a secret squirrel super thruster. The film was made in 1939, so I assume it's set in WWII, although the "enemy " is never named, and the war is never mentioned, so it may have been filmed just before the war. The chief bad guy does speak in some unidentifiable accent(that's how we know he's bad).

Ralph Richardson portrays a secret spy-guy, and Laurence Olivier plays a test pilot who join forces to foil the evil doers. I've only seen a few Olivier films so I'm not too familiar with him, but I never really pegged him as the rough and tumble action hero. But he does hell of a job and proves to be a sturdy hero-type.

The pacing is brisk, and I though the dialogue was wonderful, filled with humor and the famous English wit. The finale aboard the enemy ship is fantastic, with Sir Laurence going cyclic with a machine gun!! The finale also offers prime examples of bad guy ineptitude, as described by Flangepart in his "Red Shirts...." post.
This is a pretty kick ass spy thriller, definitely recommended!