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The Spy in Black
1939 Drama / Thriller / War
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Credits
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Director: Michael Powell
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Script: Emeric Pressburger, Roland Pertwee, J. Storer Clouston (novel)
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Photo: Bernard Browne
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Music: Miklós Rózsa
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Cast: Conrad Veidt (Captain Hardt),
Sebastian Shaw (Lt. Ashington),
Valerie Hobson (Frau Tiel),
Marius Goring (Lt. Schuster),
June Duprez (Anne Burnett),
Athole Stewart (Rev. Hector Matthews),
Agnes Lauchlan (Mrs. Matthews),
Helen Haye (Mrs. Sedley),
Cyril Raymond (Rev. John Harris),
George Summers (Capt. Walter Ratter),
Hay Petrie (Ferry Engineer),
Grant Sutherland (Bob Bratt),
Robert Rendel (Admiral),
Mary Morris (Edwards),
Margaret Moffatt (Kate)
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Country: UK
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Language: English
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Runtime: 82 min; B&W
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Aka: U-Boat 29
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Summary
In 1917, a German U-boat captain, Captain Hardt, is sent on a secret
mission off the coast of Scotland. He meets up with a German spy
posing as an English schoolmistress, who has enlisted the help of an
embittered Royal Navy officer, Ashington. Together, they intend
to guide a German U-boat into the British fleet and cause as much
destruction as possible. Unfortunately for Hardt, things are not
quite what they seem...
Review
This atmospheric wartime thriller marked the first collaboration of
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, a duo who would have an enormous
impact on British cinema in the 1940s, with films such as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
(1943), A Matter of Life and Death
(1946) and The Red Shoes
(1948).
In marked contrast to the obvious propaganda agenda of Powell and
Pressburger’s later wartime films, The
Spy in Black is strangely ambiguous in its messages about
war. With its frequent digressions into the morality of warfare,
there is a strong suggestion of anti-war sentiment, and it is
interesting that the film’s most sympathetic character is a German
officer, portrayed by Conrad Veidt with a depth and nobility that is
lacking in later war films.
Released within a month of the outbreak of World War II, the film had
propaganda value and proved to be an enormous commercial success.
Strong performances from Valerie Hobson and Conrad Veidt, along with a
taut narrative culminating in a suspenseful climax, make this a
compelling film, which explores notions of betrayal and the conflict
between desire and duty with great sensitivity and intelligence.
Hobson and Veidt would subsequently appear together in another
Powell-Pressburger film, Contraband
(1940).
© James Travers 2008
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