The Spy in Black (1939)
Directed by Michael Powell

Film 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).

Film Synopsis

In 1917, German U-boat commander Captain Hardt is sent to the northeastern coast of Scotland to make preparations for an attack on the British naval fleet.   Arriving on the Orkney Islands, he makes contact with Fräulein Tiel, a German spy who has taken the place of an English schoolmistress named Anne Burnett.  Tiel has enlisted the help of a former Royal Navy officer, Commander Ashington, who is eager for revenge after being dismissed for drunken behaviour.  The plan is to guide a German U-boat into the heart of the British fleet and sink as many of the vessels as possible.  Overhearing Tiel and Ashington in conversation Hardt learns to his horror that he has been deceived.  His supposed loyal contacts are in truth double agents (Tiel is really Jill Blacklock, Ashington's wife)  and the navy is fully aware of the planned German offensive.  Realising the game is up, Hardt takes flight in a ferry, which he subsequently takes over after releasing a number of German prisoners.  Before the navy can capture Hardt the ferry comes within firing range of one of his U-boats...