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The W Plan

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The W Plan
Image
Theatrical poster
Directed byVictor Saville[1]
Marjorie Gaffney[1]
Screenplay byVictor Saville
Miles Malleson
Frank Launder
Based on
the novel, The W Plan
by Graham Seton
[2]
Produced byVictor Saville
StarringBrian Aherne
Madeleine Carroll
Gibb McLaughlin
Gordon Harker
CinematographyRené Guissart[1]
Freddie Young[1]
Edited byMaclean Rogers[1]
Music byJohn Reynders[1]
Production
companies
Distributed byWardour Films (United Kingdom)[1]
RKO Radio Pictures (USA)[3]
Release dates
  • 15 June 1930 (1930-06-15) (United Kingdom)[1]
  • 15 March 1931 (1931-03-15) (US)[4]
Running time
87–105 minutes[4]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$125,000[5]
Box office$300,000[5]

The W Plan is a 1930 British spy film produced and directed by Victor Saville and starring Brian Aherne, Madeleine Carroll, Gibb McLaughlin, and Gordon Harker.[6] The screenplay was written by Saville with Miles Malleson and Frank Launder, based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Graham Seton.

Plot

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Colonel Duncan Grant is a British officer during World War I. When the British high command get wind of a German plan, titled The W Plan, from the lips of a dying German officer, Major Ulrich Muller, they send Grant behind enemy lines to learn the details. After successfully being dropped by airplane near the German town of Essen, where he makes his way to home of the dead German who was responsible for the plan. Grant is chosen because he speaks fluent German, having spent a significant amount of time in Germany prior to outbreak of hostilities. While in Essen, he runs into an old girlfriend, Rose Hartmann. When he and Rose go to a nearby café, he is approached by German officers and asked for his papers. While he has the documents taken from Muller, the Germans become suspicious, and Grant has to make a quick getaway. Unfortunately, the plane he is supposed to meet with to make his escape is shot down, after which Grant is arrested for desertion.

When he is about to be shot, he is instead sent to the very project he had been sent to Germany to learn about, The W Plan. It consists of a very elaborate series of underground works which are being dug beneath the British controlled territory, in order to collapse their lines. Grant succeeds in destroying a vital portion of the German underpinnings, and makes his escape back to British territory. The film ends with the allusion that he will meet up with Rose in Switzerland in the coming days.

Cast

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(Cast list as per BFI database)[1]

Reception

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Film Weekly wrote: "The main fault to be found with the film is that it is a little slow. The acting is first rate. Brian Aherne gives a most convincing portrayal of the British spy. Both as the English officer and in his German guise he is effective. It is an excellent piece of work. Madeleine Carroll is the heroine. She has very little to do, but she does it well. The supporting cast is excellent. A film you can enjoy."[7]

Kine Weekly wrote: "The story, robbed of the fine descriptive work of the author, appears rather incredible, and results in the picture not comparing too favourably with the fine authentic war pictures shown recently, but what the picture lacks in purpose and authenticity it makes up in action, suspense and thrills. ... Victor Saville has worked tremendously hard and has spared no expense to bring life and realism to the story, but his imagination, initiative and stagecraft hardly compensate for the fine descriptive writing of the author, which enveloped the novel with an atmosphere of realism which skilfully concealed the incredibilities. "[8]

Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times gave it a positive review, applauding the acting of Aherne and Madeleine Carroll, and calling the picture, "... an exciting and splendidly staged English espionage melodrama," and the "... most satisfactory production sent over here from the Elstree Studios."[2]

Variety wrote: "Story had everything, and it's easy to understand that the novel had a wide play among British readers which should help the film in the British Isles. The novel also has been advertised in the U.S. The picture, however, lacks b.o. punch for this side. But as a trailer for the original book it's priceless. That order should have been reversed."[9]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "The W Plan". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 18 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 Hall, Mordaunt (23 March 1931). "The W Plan: For King and Country". New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  3. ↑ Jewell, Richard B.; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. New York: Arlington House. p. 34. ISBN 0-517-546566.
  4. 1 2 "The W Plan". theiapolis.com. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  5. 1 2 "English Making Money". Variety. 17 September 1930. p. 57.
  6. ↑ "The W Plan". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
  7. ↑ "The W Plan". Film Weekly. 5 (129): 28. 4 April 1931. ProQuest 1705107235.
  8. ↑ "The W Plan". Kine Weekly (1211): 43. 3 July 1930. ProQuest 2322697579.
  9. ↑ "The W Plan". Variety. 102 (2): 17. 25 March 1931. ProQuest 1529381377.
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