The Next of Kin

The film was made during the war and it carries a purpose. The British army commissioned it as a training film. What it wants to say is that careless talk does harm. At the centre of the story is a plan for a landing. The target is a submarine base on the French coast. The plan has to be kept secret. The army wants everyone to believe they are going to the Middle East. A German agent is after that information. He wants to learn where the battalion is going. He does not gather it from any single source. He puts together the small details he hears. Most of those who talk have no idea they are doing anything. The posters on the walls carry the same warning. The film went on to a commercial release as well. Mervyn Johns and Nova Pilbeam appear in the hundred and two minute film, a British production Thorold Dickinson finished in 1942.