Spy for a Day (1940)

October 10th, 2025
Author: Meredith Taylor

Dir| Mario Zampi | Cast: Douglas Wakefield, Paddy Browne, Jack Allen  | comedy thriller

Reviewed by Richard Chatten

Shortly before he was interned as an enemy alien Mario Zampi his two first films, the second of which was a vehicle for the North Country comedian Duggie Wakefield in which not for the first – or the last – time our hero is the dead ringer for an enemy alien.

A simple farm labourer is kidnapped by their Germans thinking he is one of their spies. He escapes, only to be shot at by a British spy who also believes he is German.

In keeping with Zampi’s essential good nature co-writer Emeric Pressburger got an early opportunity to display his customary magnanimity to other nationalities in a surprisingly touching scene set in No Man’s with Wakefield and his German opposite number played by George Hayes.

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