Film Review
Perhaps bleakly anticipating the war that was to come,
Dark Journey was one of a number of
films made in Britain in the late 1930s that were set during the First
World War and provided readymade propaganda entertainment for when WWII
got underway in 1939. Another notable example was Michael
Powell's
The Spy in Black (1939), and it
is no accident that the Germanic lead of this film and
Dark Journey were played by one in
the same man, Conrad Veidt, who was by this stage in his career close
to being typecast as German officers of various persuasions.
Veidt first made a name for himself in Germany in the silent era, in
expressionistic masterpieces that included
Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari
(1920) and
Orlacs Hände (1924).
After fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s, he enjoyed a successful career
in England before succumbing to the lure of Hollywood in the early
1940s. He is probably most famous today for playing the
villainous Major Strasser in
Casablanca (1942).
Despite his typecasting, Veidt was an actor of remarkable range and
ability and had no difficult engaging an audience's sympathies with his
complex and humane character portrayals, even when he was cast as the
bad guy.
In
Dark Journey, Conrad Veidt
is paired up with a comparative newcomer, Vivien Leigh, not long before
she was given the star-making role of Scarlett O'Hara in
Gone With the Wind (1939).
What is perhaps most remarkable about this little known film is how two
such contrasting actors manage to work off each other, each
illuminating the other and adding depth and substance to the other's
performance. How could the ice-cool Veidt fail to melt under
the fiery onslaught from Leigh? Their chemistry is so intense
you can feel it caressing your skin, and this is what makes the film's fairly
predictable ending not just poignant but utterly, and unforgivably
cruel.
Victor Saville was hardly the most distinguished of British filmmakers
but, inspired by his two phenomenally accomplished lead actors, he
performs a small miracle with the so-so script and modest budget that
his producer Alexander Korda foisted on him, ultimately delivering one
of the most moving war time dramas to be made in Britain in the
1930s. It seems trite to describe
Dark Journey as the British
equivalent to
Casablanca, but
it's a description that fits astonishingly well. How tragic that
Veidt and Leigh never had the chance to work together again - their
separation and anticipated reunion at the end of the film isn't just
symbolic, it is also highly prophetic.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Towards the end of the First World War, Madeleine Goddard makes
frequent trips between Paris and Stockholm, ostensibly to supply
expensive dresses to her wealthy Swedish clientele. In fact, she
is a German spy who conceals coded messages in the garments she
pretends to deliver. All is well until she meets Baron Karl Von
Marwitz, a German officer who has been invalided out of the war and now
seeks a quite life in Sweden. The two embark on a passionate but
short-lived love affair, which ends with each discovering the other's
real identity. Von Marwitz is a leading member of the German
secret service, whilst Madeleine is in fact a double agent working for
British and French intelligence...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.