Capital Celluloid 2023 — Day 339: Wed Dec 6

The Phantom Light (Powell, 1935): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.30pm

This film, part of the Powell and Pressburger season at BFI Southbank, also screens on December 17th. Full details can be found here.

Time Out review:
A creaky stage play is transformed by Powell into a cheap but splendidly atmospheric comedy thriller. Gordon Harker stars as a Cockney lighthouse-keeper who, with the aid of an insurance investigator (Binnie Hale) and a naval officer (Ian Hunter), sees off a gang of wreckers intent on no good. The leader of the wreckers is one 'Dr Carey', the setting is Wales, and the climactic confrontation is intercut with a ship heading for the rocks. Any party, even the Welsh Nationalists, could interpret this allegory to their own ends.
Tom Charity

Here (and above) is an extract.

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