Neutral Port

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Neutral Port
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Directed byMarcel Varnel
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  • T.J. Morrison
  • J.B. Williams
Produced byEdward Black
StarringPage Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
  • Will Fyffe
  • Leslie Banks
  • Yyvonne Arnaud
  • Phyllis Calvert
CinematographyPage Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
Music byLouis Levy
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors
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Running time
89 minutes
Template:Pluralize from textUnited Kingdom
Template:Pluralize from textEnglish

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Neutral Port (also known as The Net) is a 1940 British war comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Will Fyffe, Leslie Banks, Yvonne Arnaud, and Phyllis Calvert.[1] It was written by T.J. Morrison and J.B. Williams and produced and distributed by Gainsborough Pictures. It was one of several films Fyffe made for Gainsborough.[2]

Plot

A British merchant ship is torpedoed by a German U-boat and takes shelter in a neutral port. The captain then strikes back at the German enemy.[3]

Cast

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Production

The film was shot at the Gainsborough's Lime Grove Studios in West London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Will Fyffe as Captain Ferguson puts over a few gags in his forthright style, but on the whole this film, whether considered as propaganda or as entertainment, is disappointing. The root of its weakness lies in the extent to which it is entirely divorced from reality. Its link with the present war is purely arbitrary. There were perhaps reasons why the neutral port should have been given the fictional name of Esperanto, but unfortunately the setting and the characters are all of the musical comedy kind which such a name exactly suggests, and there is the most trivial kind of penny blood adventure story to match."[4]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Lively story momentum is established and maintained. A spirited super-imposed love interest, a great performance by Will Fyffe, appropriate and topical last-minute spectacular, and a marvellous title seal the obvious box-office project. Excellent general booking."[5]

Picturegoer wrote: "The star acts well and is one of the picture's mainstays, but generally it is all rather ingenuous and suffers from a repetition of the central idea. ... There are a number of spectacular sea sequences, but the entertainment relies mainly on the efforts of Will Fyffe."[6]

Picture Show wrote: "Stimulating, breezy, topical, this comedy melodrama of the sea is a real tonic. ...Will Fyfle is a joy as the pugnacious old skipper, and Yvonne Arnaud delightful as Rosa. The excellent supporting cast is headed by Leslie Banks as the Consul whom the skipper constantly embarrasses."[7]

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Neutral Port". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Vagg, Stephen (1 December 2024). "Forgotten British Film Moguls: Ted Black". Filmink. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Neutral Port (1941)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Neutral Port". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 7 (73): 181. 1 January 1940. Template:ProQuest.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Neutral Port". Kine Weekly. 286 (1756): 10. 12 December 1940. Template:ProQuest.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Neutral Port". Picturegoer. 10: 16. 2 January 1941. Template:ProQuest.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Neutral Port". Picture Show. 44 (1134): 2. 18 January 1941. Template:ProQuest.

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