If you were an escaped Nazi criminal on the run in England, what would you do? Go deep underground? Try and Swim the channel? Or murder an emigrating scientist, take over his laboratory, and continue the unholy germ warfare experiments that you were doing back there during the war whilst pretending to be British and restraining yourself from screaming "Mein Furher!" As he was sort of brought up in England as a child his British accent is flawless, but the Nazi criminal is such an arrogant, ill-tempered, moaning bastard that he immediately attracts suspicion from everyone around him! It doesn't help that he's got a dead body in a trunk, won't let anyone into his secret germ warfare lab, shouts at the help, and falls in love with the daughter of the murdered scientist friend when he should have probably killed her instead (he was going to!).Our Nazi scientist also spends a lot of time avoiding a woman who knew the guy he killed, replacing his house staff with suspicious teutonic accented women, and preventing the girl he didn't kill from falling in love with his assistant (who's is highly suspicious mainly due to a set of golf clubs).This all sounds jolly exciting, but it kind of isn't for the most part. It's hilarious watching this guy barely restraining his Nazi tendencies (he even 'puts down' a German for decrying the Third Reich!) whilst trying to be a jovial Englishman, but a lot of this drags a bit, especially the ironic ending, which surely would have had many a surviving Jewish person saying "Er...too soon." Still....etc.

I have to admit that one of my greatest cinematic guilty pleasures is the horror of the Nazi film (unfortunately, certain political trends recently in my neighbour to the south, the United States, make me unfortunately feel that similar ways of thinking have yet to be eradicated). Thankfully, being born as I was in the late 60's, I didn't have to experience such terror firsthand, but it's fascinating to see, through the wonders of cinema, examples of that fascist type of thinking, carried out to its fruition (some of my favourites in this area are quite controversial films, like 'Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom', 'The Night Porter' and 'Dr. Strangelove'). At least in my estimation, I have no idea how I would have acted in either polarity of the situation: either being a German and told to act accordingly, or being a concentration camp inmate. I am simply thankful I didn't have to experience either horrific scenario.This film was an unexpected pleasure. Though no star power is behind it, or budget to speak of, and though there is suspense and a good script, it could have been a lot better handled, both in terms of direction and cinematography (it has 'British 40's B-picture' written all over it, while it's crying out for a capable helmer such as Sir Carol Reed, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, or The Archers, each of which would have made a minor masterpiece out of it). I am very thankful that it was included in my Mill Creek 'Nightmare Worlds' 50-film pack, or honestly I would have never heard of it. Now my main ambition is to get all of their sets, and see what other cinematic hidden treasures I can discover!

The title of this film didn't come up when I typed in "Counterblast", so I used actor Robert Beatty's name who's listed at the top of the credits for this surprisingly effective mystery story. I'm not sure why he's got top billing because Mervyn Johns appears to do all the heavy lifting in his role as Dr. Bruckner, the 'Beast of Ravensbruck'. As an escaped Nazi war criminal, Bruckner assumes the identity of Australian microbiologist Dr.Richard Forrester after killing him in his London hotel room. Bruckner's mission is to develop a germ warfare concoction that can eventually be used to secure Nazi victory.For a Nazi on the lam, a couple of things puzzled me. Why for example, in his haste to leave the hotel after killing Forrester, did he stop to pay his room bill? And what conceivable purpose could there have been to lugging around a set of golf clubs other than to arouse the suspicion of his new lab assistant Rankin (Beatty)? Finally, for a world class bacteriologist himself, Bruckner should have been slick enough not to get tripped up on that little detail about his preferred lab chemical being exclusively German made.But I guess none of that really matters because the overall story is a fairly intriguing one, with Mervyn Johns donning a sinister countenance in direct contrast to the character of Bob Cratchit from my favorite version of "Scrooge", the 1951 Christmas classic. Uncharacteristically, this Nazi softens up enough over the course of the story to fall for his lab helper (Nova Pilbeam) and mingle with the aristocrats of British high society. You almost get to the point of liking the guy, but come on, he's a Nazi. So it's fittingly ironic that Bruckner meets his end in a manner suited to his profession - one could say it was a gas.

"A Nazi scientist escapes Germany prior to its surrender at the end of World War II and sets up a lab in England using the identity of an Australian scientist he murdered. Hoping to complete his germ-warfare experiment, in the hopes of its use by Nazis in a future war, the scientist's agenda becomes complicated when he falls in love with his lab assistant," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Mervyn Johns is terrific, deftly playing "Dr. Bruckner", who poses as "Dr. Anderson", to kill and take the place of "Dr. Forrester". Still, Paul L. Stein's "Counterblast" is unnecessarily slow moving, and simply refuses to get mileage out of suspenseful situations. For starters, the film should have begun with Mr. Johns' murder of "Dr. Forrester". Previous events are easily filled in during subsequent scenes; and, an air of mystery would be added to the unfolding events.