Writing for Night and Day in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a poor review, describing it as "badly directed [and] badly acted". He admitted that "it has an old-world charm" but complained that the "well-mannered dialogue drones on".[3]
Britmovie called it a "routine thriller",[4] while British Pictures observed that the film "suffers through being an adaptation of a theatre adaptation (by Ian Hay) of the original novel. Some of the exposition is clunky and at times confusing; and the direction needed someone like Walter Forde to make the most of it. Hawkins and Harker, in the roles they played on stage, hold it together."[5]
^Graham Greene, 'We from Kronstadt/The Frog/Make Way for Tomorrow/Der Herrscher', Night and Day, 1 July 1937; reprinted in John Russell Taylor (ed), The Pleasure Dome, Oxford University Press 1980, p.150