The W Plan

The W Plan
The W Plan
	Theatrical poster
Directed by	Victor Saville; Marjorie Gaffney
Screenplay by	Victor Saville; Miles Malleson; Frank Launder
Based on	the novel, The W Plan; by Graham Seton
Produced by	Victor Saville
Starring	Brian Aherne; Madeleine Carroll; Gibb McLaughlin; Gordon Harker
Cinematography	René Guissart; Freddie Young
Edited by	Maclean Rogers
Music by	John Reynders
Production; companies	British International Pictures; Elstree Studios
Distributed by	Wardour Films (United Kingdom); RKO Radio Pictures (USA)
Release dates	15 June 1930 (United Kingdom); 15 March 1931 (US);
Running time	87–105 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$125,000
Box office	$300,000

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. The screenplay was written by Saville with Miles Malleson and Frank Launder, based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Graham Seton. When the film was released in the United States, Aherne was appearing in The Barretts of Wimpole Street on Broadway, and receiving praise for his performance as Robert Browning. The film was a critical success, but did not do well at the box office.

Plot

Colonel Duncan Grant (Brian Aherne) 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 (George Merritt), 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 (Madeleine Carroll). 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

Brian Aherne as Colonel Duncan Grant
George Merritt as Major Ulrich Muller
C. M. Hallard as Commander in Chief
Frederick Lloyd as Colonel Jervois
B. Gregory as Flight Commander Mayne
Mary Jerrold as Frau Muller
Madeleine Carroll as Rosa Hartmann
Clifford Heatherley as Café proprietor
Austin Trevor as Captain of military police
Norah Howard as Lady of the town
Cameron Carr as Private Otto Goddern
Milton Rosmer as President of the court martial
Alfred Drayton as Prosecuting counsel
Charles Paton as Defending counsel
Wilhelm Koenig as Prison commandant
Gordon Harker as Private Waller
Gibb McLaughlin as Private 'Ginger' McTavish

(Cast list as per BFI database)^[1]

Reception

While The W Plan did not do well at the US box office,^[3] it did receive critical acclaim. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times gave it a very 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]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k "The W Plan". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 18 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
^ ^a ^b 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.
^ ^a ^b Jewell, Richard B.; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. New York: Arlington House. p. 34. ISBN 0-517-546566.
^ ^a ^b "The W Plan". theiapolis.com. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
^ ^a ^b "English Making Money". Variety. 17 September 1930. p. 57.

External links

[BFI-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k "The W Plan". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 18 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.

[nyt-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.

[RKO-3] Jewell, Richard B.; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. New York: Arlington House. p. 34. ISBN 0-517-546566.

[Theiapolis-4] "The W Plan". theiapolis.com. Retrieved 18 August 2014.

[eng-5] "English Making Money". Variety. 17 September 1930. p. 57.

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