Ignore the rubbish title, DUSTY ERMINE is an intriguing little crime potboiler made in Britain in 1936. It features an entirely stodgy and studio bound first half which gives way to a rather exciting action-adventure second, with location photography in Austria and the Swiss Alps, no less.
The title might actually have been explained in Neil Grant's original play, which sadly seems typical of the inattention to mundane details which pushed producer Julius Hagen into bankruptcy within a year of this film's release. Hagen seems actually to have splashed out on sending to the Austrian Alps leads Anthony Bushell, the delightful Jane Baxter (whom I saw in the flesh along with director Bernard Vorhaus at a screening of this film on the South Bank in 1986) and writer/actor Arthur Macrae for the James Bond-style finale.
This was an early promotion of a "young" Margaret Rutherford - albeit that she was playing a secondary role, so certainly was NOT the star of this movie. We are though given a film adaption of a play.
A sort-of-young Margaret Rutherford shows her comic potential in this early appearance as a member of a shady counterfeiting ring in this entertaining if slightly muddled comedy-thriller. Ronald Squire is a reformed forger who discovers that his talented nephew has been drawn into the same racket by a gang operating out of a sports hotel in the Swiss Alps and travels there to sort things out.
Most of the best parts are in the second half (as another reviewer states). It opens well, which includes a great exchange at the prison gates.
Hi Folks, This is a great British film of 1936 with a good cast and story, the ending sequence will have you on the edge of your seats just like in the great tradition of 1930's serial cliffhangers, I found my self yelling at the screen 'for heaven's sake get down that mountain' not something I'm given to doing at films nowadays at 62 it's not something thats the thing to do... or is it, this film is great fun and the end chase down the ski slopes is a real cliffhanger, it took me back to Saturday morning kids matinée's during the 1950's, if you enjoy old cinema serials enjoy this film, if you've never seen this type film then watch and enjoy and see what you missed, also worth watching for the technology of the time, which in no way decreases the pace, great entertainment.
In recent years I've endured some truly dire British films from the 1930s, often from the likes of Carol Reed, so it's a welcome change to stumble across one that strains credulity only marginally and boasts a cast that will interest anyone interested in early sound films from both sides of the Atlantic. Margaret Rutherford, for example, is widely if erroneously believed to have begun her career with the play version of Blithe Spirit, produced in 1940 whilst Dusty Ermine, produced in 1936, finds her already well established and enjoying a meaty supporting role as a key member of a ring of forgers.
