Law and Disorder (1940) User Reviews

Enjoyable

[Wayland_Wombat · 6/10 · 13 May 2020]

Available to rent and view using bfi movie player, enjoyable film, the on camera chemistry between Barry K Barnes and Diana Churchill lovely to see (married in real life), I can't add more to film description that other reviews have written, not a masterpiece but well worth seeing if a fan of British film of this genre.

Even Sim cant save this one

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 26 April 2012]

Barry K Barnes plays a solicitor in partnership with his father.He defends potential saboteurs and gets them off charges of espionage much to the fury of the police inspector played by Edward Chapman.He is trying to play a sort of double game to worm his way into the confidences of the German gang,the head of whom ,Austin Trevor,has an accent which would not be out of place in Allo Allo.The plot developments are laborious and predictable till of course the gang are rounded up.The film just doesn't seem to know whether to play for drama or comedy but it fails in both directions.Compare this with example "Contraband",set in the same period about spy's and far superior in every way. Incidentally the Germans were set on midnight to operate a radio beam to guide bombers in to the target.Did the scriptwriters know something or was it just a guess.German bombers were of course guided on to targets by radio beams such as the Knickerbein.

Decent WW2 comic thriller with A.Sim!

[gnok2002 · 4/10 · 20 April 2012]

I will post a review for each film I have seen that is so far without one... This was shown at the NFT in London (UK) April 10th 2012, brief review follows... This has Barry K Barnes as a young lawyer, who exasperates his senior partner A.Sim by acting for enemy spies and getting them cleared on technicalities, his motive is to infiltrate the gang and get the head man, its quick competent, watchable and of course it has A.Sim always a delight. The Director is the undervalued David MacDonald who was active from the late 30's to early 60's, his most fun film being DEVIL GIRLS FROM MARS (1954) a rare example of a 50's British sci-fi film, and as with LAW AND DISORDER, not to be taken seriously. Alastair Sim was a great talent he was in films for 40 years from the mid 30's his best work being SCROOGE (1951); both of them were Scottish they worked together on two other films THIS MAN IS NEWS (1938) & THIS MAN IN Paris (1940), along with B.K.Barnes (English). To sum up if you get the chance this is no masterpiece, but is worth 75m of any fan of old British films, enjoy!