User reviews

This film's message was so important and serious that it was originally intended by the authorities in wartime Britain for military circulation only. However, the original project for a simple training film warning of the terrible danger of Nazi espionage grew into a full-blown Ealing Studios feature, largely because the director (the great and nowadays relatively unsung Thorold Dickinson) was able to convince the 'top brass' that the message of his film should also be brought to the attention of the 'next of kin' on the home front.

The paradoxical result was that a film at first only intended for strictly limited circulation amongst those with security clearance became a great box office hit. Equally paradoxical was the degree of really quite startling realism - especially for the time - with which it convincingly presented certain uncomfortable realities of war to the domestic audience; the only concession to any kind of comforting assurance being the explosive finale when, despite horrifying casualties amongst the invasion force whose plans have been compromised by enemy agents, the commandos are able to press on and successfully sabotage their strategic military objective on the coast of occupied France.

The location filming of authentic training manoeuvres in and around the Cornish village of Megavissey is superb, and does not pull its punches in showing bodies blown to bits, etc. The remarkable live sound recording gives a really stomach-tightening sense of the military hardware being unleashed: The sounds of the actual artillery, bombs, and powerful engines actually mobilized for War contribute to a far greater urgency than what audiences were used to. Even now, it is abundantly clear that CGI pyrotechnics, by comparison, just do not pack the requisite punch.

The script cleverly and effectively alerts its audience to the very real danger of 'careless talk' and even deals unblinkingly with such unsavoury real-life scenarios as a cocaine-addicted stripper being blackmailed into spying on her soldier boyfriend by her Nazi-sympathising dresser; or a cultivated bookshop owner who is in reality a ruthless Nazi agent, and perfectly prepared to blackmail his young assistant into obtaining information by threatening to arrange that her Jewish parents, whom she has had to leave behind in occupied Amsterdam when she became a refugee, are detained in 'protective custody;' or the mild little businessman from Wales who strolls around undetected and undetained throughout the film, stealing information with alarming ease, to the untold advantage of his country's deadly foe.

These Nazi spies are not the usual easily-defeated Prussian blockheads beloved of more naive propaganda films, but intelligent, sophisticated and well-trained agents, supplied with detailed cover, a network of contacts, and portable radios. They represent an all-too-believable and imminent threat to Britain's survival.

One cannot help reflecting that this clear-eyed view of Britain's predicament stands now in stark contrast to the present era of lies and dissimulation. Churchill thought - quite reasonably during such an extreme emergency - of banning this film, but eventually reconsidered, since the military authorities of the time were ultimately prepared to trust the people of Britain with something surprisingly close to the truth. I venture to state that, evidently, people were trusted more by their governors during the global crisis of a World War, when national survival unquestionably stood in far greater danger of sudden catastrophe, than they are today!

Considering I was hitherto unaware of this excellent film prior to it's being shown on "Talking Pictures" tv, what a revelation it was. With a stellar cast and a "careless talk costs lives" propaganda backcloth, this film ticks along nicely and, whilst providing a very serious message also manages to give the viewer a genuine thriller. Some fine performances here and good to see the likes of Jack Hawkins, Nova Pilbeam, Mervyn Johns, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, to mention but a few, getting involved. Overall, a really terrific effort and yet another old British war story that leaves so many more recent movies standing.

Why does the Brigadier's wine merchant know where he is being posted next? The mess sergeant let it drop. Efforts to tighten up security to make sure leaks that might reveal troop movement aren't much use when the British soldier believes we're all in it together. The only suspicion is raised when a trooper claims he was assigned to Headquarters, and another soldier doesn't recognize him. He reports him to the C.O., and it turns out he's right.... and the reporting trooper has his leave cut short to escort the spy to prison. Even that pretty dancer you've been dating turns out to be telling German spies what you've said innocuously.

It's all being managed by people who run bookstores or are dentists, with accents that proclaim they are as English as John Bull. And their deadliest agent, who kills Nova Pilbeam -- Boo! Hiss! -- is worn-down, workaday Mervyn Johns.

The War Office commissioned this movie from Michael Balcon. He took the small amount of money, doubled it, made this rip-roaring yet somber spy drama. Once he recovered the money he had put into it, the profits went to the War Office, and there were plenty of profits. It was enormously popular, and rightly so, even if Churchill considered having it censored because it might destroy morale. If we can't trust each other, whom can we trust?

It all ends with an exciting race. The army is planning a massive raid. Johns has the aerial surveys. Can he get it to the German High Command in time for them to figure out where it will be and stop it? Or at least make it so difficult that death notices must be sent to the next of kin?

So keep your lip buttoned up. Even if you're Wayne Naunton taking to Basil Radford. Mervyn Johns might be listening.

When a British army unit is given the task, to attack a vital German U boat base, they know that security has to be 100 per cent. In this semi documentary look at the operation, it is shown how even the smallest remark about the raid , when overheard by German agents, and put together with other clues, will result the raid being a total failure. From one of the officers telling his girlfriend, that his unit is moving to a special training area, to the bookseller blackmailing his assistant into obtaining information from her soldier boyfriend, to the RAF officer, who leaves his briefcase, where a German agent can steal, and copy his photographs, the film then shows in graphic detail, what could happen, when the troops land. and the enemy are waiting. This story shows to war weary audience, how easy it is to talk out of turn, and put allied soldiers lives at risk.

I awarded this film 7/10 as it was well produced with the help of the armed services and although actors played the principal parts it was entirely credible.It showed that despite being a propaganda film, the Germans were very efficient and capable in gathering war time data from the British using artifice, threats, intelligence and perverted bravery. There was of course plenty of posters reminding citizens and the armed forces the danger of a casual word about what one was doing, going, and releasing other information liable to be of use to the enemy.Mervyn Johns is cast again as the 5th columnist spy like he played in "Counterblast" and appears in the end scene with Charters & Caldicot that well known acting duo.Jack Hawkins makes an early appearance wearing a moustache using his unique pre-cancerous voice.Nova Pilbeam plays a Dutch émigré whose parents are held in "protective custody" by the Gestapo in Holland who is forced to provide intelligence of troop movements to her book seller German employer.

If it had not been on YouTube.com I would never have seen this excellent film as it never appears on UK television despite the existence of various heritage channels.In fact "London Live" for example keeps repeating Ealing films they have already transmitted when there are plenty of other vintage films like the present one they could show for us vintage film aficionados.

I loved this film. It is so genuine, all the persons playing part in it are so very much alive and convincing, that you get under the skin of them all, whether they end up badly or not, even the spies and the crooks. This is not the only war film Winston Churchill wanted to ban, there were a number and several of the best, and this is one of them. Fortunately he didn't succeed in banning any of them.

Especially so long afterwards, 76 years later to be exact, it's immensely rewarding to see such an example of supreme realism all the way, of ordinary people, officers and soldiers, spies and victims, in their very various precarious situations, all under severe pressure, some under threats of death or worse, but all keeping on working and straining themselves for what everyone of them believes is for the best of all. The Germans are not depicted as crooks and villains, they are rather very well objectively filmed, like also the Britishers. They are all doing an extremely difficult job under extreme strain, and this was during the year when the war reached its deepest crisis. It is almost perfectly documentary in character all the way.

This is in response to SimonJack's review of Next of Kin in which he indicates that The Third Man is a prime example of an espionage film. If we accept the usual definition of espionage as having to do with spies and spying, I must have sneezed when anything of that nature occurred in The Third Man. Please correct me if I am wrong, but The Third Man involved the theft of penicillin, diluting it to a dangerous and worthless extent, then selling it on the black market. Of course, there was much, much more to it than that, but not a smidgen of spying. The Third Man should not be mentioned in reviews of lessser efforts such as Next of Kin.

According to IMDB, Winston Churchill wanted to have this film banned. After seeing it, I can understand...though I am glad the movie was shown to British audiences during the war. This is because it's a different sort of war film...one without the usual cliches and with a much higher degree of realism. So realistic in part of the story that the British get their butts kicked by the Germans and a few of the Brits in the story don't act so intelligently or honorably.

The theme in the movie is essentially for military folks to keep their mouths shut and their wits about them, as Nazi agents might be about their country in order to report all that they see to their bosses back in Germany. Again and again through the course of the picture, you see some Brits working hard to stop the German spy apparatus but far more who unwittingly help the enemy through their own stupidity.

I really appreciated how the film passed on an essential message without making the Nazis like the usual snarling villains in war films. I also appreciate how intelligent the script is. In fact, the only things I didn't love about the film was some of its use of stock footage near the end....which is a real shame since they did a great job of creating realistic looking battle scenes. Well worth seeing.

By the way, you can sure tell this was NOT made in Hollywood, as you get a brief glimpse of boobs as well as having a curse word. This is not to say British films of the era had an anything goes style...British censorship was very strong...just not regarding a curse word or showing a book with a bare chested lady on the cover.

This isn't so much an action film, as a series of scenarios that convey a message to the watching public that "careless talk costs lives". It started out life as a training film and you can tell by the rather clunky editing that director Thorold Dickinson was thinking on his feet as this project aimed at the military grew into a very important, and effective, counter-espionage tool. It's got quite a formidable cast of serving (or reservist) soldiers including Mervyn Johns, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Murray, Basil Sydney as well as Torin Thatcher in his typical role as the baddie; and the narrative weaves threads that cleverly expose just how easily the enemy got hold of information and capitalised on it. It uses actuality from time to time, and has a strange sort of excitement especially as the climaxes to each thread are not always favourable to the British which also lends it a considerable authenticity. There is a bit of wartime black humour to enjoy too, and though a curious film to watch, it has an unique plausibility which I found interesting, and to an extent, quite enjoyable.

This is a really good war film with none of the old boys club class divisions of so many other films. Action is very believable with the men being shot collapsing very realistically and the British soldier using his rifle back on the neck of a Nazi is as realistic as can be. Only annoyance was the British soldiers failure to look before running round corners or bunching up instead of spacing apart. It's not generally known but in late 30s huge numbers of German 'tourists' travelled UK photographing all military and industrial sites. It's well worth watching.

As ruthless as it is engrossing, this film deliberately lets us know early on who the spies are so we know precisely when the moments of peril subsequently arise.

There is as usual the dry humour one associates with even the most single-minded British wartime propaganda (some of the peripheral detail is even quite racy, and the wartime censor permitted a reference to cocaine addiction)!

Among a large cast of familiar faces the use of Mary Clare is particularly striking, while Phyllis Stanley is a fox as the film's Mata Hari. But the final scene with two old favourites manages to surpass all that has gone before.

Essential viewing: I would love to know what Goebbels made of it!

This film was originally produced as a Military Training film. It was designed not only to make British servicemen aware of the need for security and to keep secrets, but to give the general public the same awareness as well.

The film puts good emphasis on just how easy it would have been to become careless and not realise who you were talking to. It showed that even the smallest and most insignificant piece of information could be of use to a Foreign Power - all part of a large jigsaw puzzle.

However, to anyone else this film comes over as a very good wartime spy thriller.

Mervyn Johns plays the part of a very skilful fifth columnist working for German Intelligence. His performance is so good that you would almost mistake him for being the hero rather than the villain. You could go on believing this until, at the end of the film, you come realise what damage his duplicitous and despicable deeds have done.

At the very beginning of the film, his accomplice is caught by the British, along with the rest of the network making up his organisation. However, himself being older and wilier, survives right up till the very end. The last scene shows how he manages to carry on with his sneaky and contemptible work, continuing to remind the audience that you cannot be too careful about who you are talking to, or sitting next to.

It was nice to see many of the celebrated actors of the day appearing in cameo roles. Names such as Jack Hawkins, Nova Pilbeam, Thora Hird and, the ever reliable, Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford, would have given the film the right amount of box office appeal.

Incidentally, the "goof" that is reported as a "geographical error" on IMDB was probably deliberate. As, with many films about England that were made during the Second World War, it was sometimes necessary to give false geographical locations, should a recording of the film be seen by an agent of a Foreign Power. With this in mind, it should be noted that, in the case of this film, the town of Westport on the Northern Coast of England, is deceptively fictitious for security reasons.

What started out as a training film for military security, "The Next of Kin" became a full-fledged movie that was released in the United Kingdom in 1942 and in America the following year. This film is much in the line of a number of wartime espionage thrillers. Some were made between the world wars. Others were made during the war, and a good number were made in the years and decades following World War II.

What sets "The Next of Kin Apart," is its combination of military and civilian. It's focus is on leaks by military personnel during wartime and how the enemy can collect and use the information. It is a film about combat training and operations. And, it is a film about a Nazi spy ring operating within the general population of England. The British soldiers don't know who the enemy spies might be, but they are not to trust anyone with information about their training or unit plans. The Nazi spies know the British forces, but they don't know where or when they are sent for training, or what their missions might be. The one is to keep its mouth shut. The other is to keep its eyes and ears open and, if necessary, to pry the information out of unsuspecting soldiers and citizens.

The movie ties the two entities together by the training of the troops, by their leave time enjoyments, and by other subtle encounters. In the training, the troops are told of the need for strict security and the devastating results that can come from security leaks. And this film delivers with a very good plot. All the performances are very good. My DVD has an introduction and closing with a general speaking to a large group of American GIs and reiterating the need to keep one's mouth shut.

Some view this as a propaganda film, but that's a far stretch. The film doesn't seem to fit any of the usual dictionary definitions of influencing people's opinions or promoting a particular cause or point of view. Rather, it seems pretty straightforward about the dangers of security leaks. And that means training – and education by examples and possible consequences.

"The Next of Kin" doesn't boast a billboard of big names of the silver screen of the day. But it is a very good and interesting movie that most people should enjoy. It's a must for any good war films library.

Those interested in espionage films should appreciate any of the classics of the genre. "The 39 Steps" of 1935 and "The Third Man" of 1949 are considered the very best by many movie buffs. But right up there with them are "5 Fingers" and "The Counterfeit Traitor," both made in 1952. Some later excellent films are two 1965 releases, "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" and "The Ipcress File;" and a 1975 thriller, "Three Days of the Condor." Most of those are civilian espionage settings.

This was originally going to be a short to be shown to the troops.However it developed into a feature aimed at stopping gossip.The assumption being that there was an active fifth column of spies,which fortunately was not the case.So we get a lesson,landing very entertainingly put across by a starry cast of what one should and shouldn't do.

Thorold Dickinson was one of the best British directors of the 1930s and 1940s. Although his film output was rather low, he delivered such high pedigree works as QUEEN OF SPADES, GASLIGHT and, of course, THE NEXT OF KIN.

The latter is an extremely realistic war propaganda piece where citizens and soldiers take innocent, careless, or deliberate actions that end up costing lives, and harming the United Kingdom's military effort and national security.

With actors of such high quality as Mervyn Johns, Jack Hawkins, Nova Pillbeam, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne playing small but necessary parts, NEXT OF KIN is eminently watchable, intelligent, realistic to the extent of showing the national forces getting as good as they give, and even senior military officers making amateurish mistakes.

Chilly ending, too, with the inconspicuous spy listening to a chat between army officers - it brings to mind a time when you could not speak, any word could be misinterpreted, any life could be in danger over founded or unfounded suspicion. Of that time and that world were we all saved by the brave Allied forces who fought in WWII, and our gratitude can never be enough.

Extremely apt cinematography and editing, eloquent script, superior direction by Dickinson - NEXT OF KIN is a propaganda masterpiece and a very good, riveting film in its own right! 9/10.