The Spy in Black (1939) - film review

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...

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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