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The inventor of a ray that con stop airplane engines & force them
to land has been murdered, & the construction plans of the ray have
been stolen, to be sold to a foreign power.
But top-agent Gran (Hans Albers) is already on the job, & since he
knows enemy agent Gordon (Hubert von Meyerinck), presently in Venice, has
to pick up the plans in Rome, he has him lured onto the yacht of lovely
young Viola (Karin Hardt), & taken on a cruise through the Adriatic
Sea ... without Viola. (Need I say, lovely Viola has fallen in love with
Gran ?)
Then, Gran assumes the identity with Godon & gets in touch with Ms
Mervin (Olga Tschechowa), who has stolen the plans, but alas hasn't got
them anymore but sold them to Tschernikoff (Albert Bassermann), an
immensely rich art collector who does a little bit of smuggling of
military secrets on the side. Pretenting to want to buy the plans from him
(when actually he just wants to steal them), Gran soon becomes a guest in
Tschernikoff's house, & learns of Tschernikoff's wife Bianca
(Rose Stradner) having an affair with artist Pietro (Walter Rilla), who is
supposed to paint her protrait, but secretly also paints a nude of her.
& when Tschernikoff wants ot pick up te portrait, he accidently picks
up the nude (but seems to never notice it), & from now on, Bianca
& Pietro are panicking, because if Tschernikoff ever finds out ...
But more trouble seems to be brewing, as Viola (as I mentioned in love
with Gran) has decided to follow him to Rome, & since she is Bianca's
best friend, she not only stays at her house but Bianca also persuades her
to steal her nude from her husband's safe - which is where she meets Gran
again, wanting to steal the plans. Neither succeeds, but they agree to
cover for each other ... but by now Ms Mervin has found out Gran's true
identitiy & tells it to Tschernikoff, carefully forgetting to mention
that she, too, wants to steal the plans & sell them to yet another
foreign power.
Tschernikoff decides to set Gran a trap & invites him to the opera
where he gives him the perfect opportunity to slip away & open
Tschernikoff's safe on his own ... upon which Tschernikoff can catch him
red-handed & pretty much legally shoot him ... but Gran is already one
step ahead & encourages Tschernikoff to gloat a little ... so
Tschernikoff tells him that he has already shipped the planbs to whatever
foreign power, hidden in the portrait of hiswife ... but only Gran knows
that he didn'T send the portrait but the nude away, & the portrait -
with the plans - is still in the artists studio ... which presently goes
up in flames as Bianca & Pietro want to make a getaway & burn the
bridges behind them.
Somehow, Gran manages to slip away from Tschernikoff's gun pointed at
him, race to the studio, save the plans just before they fall victim to
hte flames & deliver them to the embassy - whereto Tschernikoff &
his men can't follow. & in the end, Tschernikoff, Ms Mervin & the
whole gang, even Gordon, whom Gran has put out of action early on, are
arrested, & Gran gets the girl (Viola, that is).
As often with German espionage films fronm the 1930's this is a blend
of light comedy, crime drama, & roamntic love story. Furthermore the
film is perfectly tailored to the jack-of-all-trades screen-image of its
lead Hans Albers, & lush sets as well as the Venice- &
Rome-outdoor-scenery give the film a lavish look. That allof course
can't hide the film's rather mundane pulp origins & rather silly plot.
Still, in an old-fashioned way it can be pretty entertaining.
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find Ein Gewisser Herr Gran at adultvideouniverse.com
