El rey de los espías

Fine WWI spy thriller featuring two of my favorites, the great Boris Karloff and lovely Margaret Lindsay. The story centers around a German secret agent (Lindsay) going undercover at the home of a British cabinet minister (Holmes Herbert), whose scar-faced butler (Karloff) is really a double agent. A few twists & turns keep this one interesting. Set in WWI, the plot and dialogue is applicable to WWII as well. No doubt that was intentional. It's a fine B movie with a crisp pace, short runtime, and great cast. Try not to read too much about it or you're sure to come across some spoilers that might ruin some of it for you.

This is very good for its genre, with an interesting story, solid atmosphere, and two good leading performances from Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay. Made during the early part of the Second World War (when England was enduring constant air assaults and other threats), and set during the First World War, there is an obvious patriotic slant to it. But aside from a short speech by one of the characters at the end of the movie, it mostly allows the story and characters to stand on their own.

Karloff and Lindsay star as two very resourceful spies who are planted in the home of a prominent English family, with most of the story revolving around whether they are spies on behalf of England or on behalf of Germany. Karloff is, of course, especially good in a part like this, giving his character a believably ingratiating manner in his cover role as a butler, and a steely eye in his unguarded moments. He makes it easy to believe that his character can keep everyone else in the dark.

Lindsay gets one of her best roles, and she makes full use of it. Her character obviously has weapons much different from those of Karloff's character, and she too is believable in keeping the others, even Karloff, guessing.

The story moves at a good pace, and it features several good turns as it builds up the tension. Like many movies of this kind, there are places here and there where it could have been improved. In particular, its portrayal of Britain as a traitor-riddled society threatened with imminent collapse shows the strong influence of the frightening times in which it was filmed. But in its time it probably provided some genuine encouragement, and today it still remains an enjoyable movie that is well worth the time to see.

There aren't that many World War I spy movies around. At least I haven't seen that many. Hitchcock's "Secret Agent," (1936) Sternberg's "Dishonored" (1931) and Garbo's "Mata Hari" (1932) are the only three great classics I have seen. Blake Edwards's "Darling Lili" was a waste of celluloid.

Made at the beginning of World War II (1940), there are clear reference to the war situation at that time in this movie. The talk about madmen taking over the war is clearing about Hitler and not the Kaiser.

The movie showed bombing raids against London from both zeppelins and aircraft. I assumed that these were fictional, but I was surprised to find out that there were a few zeppelin raids and 22 aircraft raids against England in the war.

Acting by Boris Karloff (creepy and effective) and Margaret Lindsay (subtle and clever) make the picture a lot of fun to watch. Although the plot is overly complicated to follow and jumps around a bit too much, there is a surprising amount of tension built up over who are the real German spies.

Some people have complained about how easy the spies had it in the movie. They seem to just need to lurk a bit and they overhear all the war secrets they need. We should remember that people were more trusting back then and the idea of an organized spy ring was quite fanciful. Today we have an ultra security conscious society.

This is a fun and easy to watch 62 minutes. I would recommend it for any spy film fan and any Boris Karloff fan.

I wonder if the name for Harry Potter's arch-villain, Valdemar, had anything to do with the name of Karloff in this movie, Valdar.

For a minor war movie, this wasn't too bad. Cross, double-cross, double, double-cross....well, you get the idea. The whole idea of British intelligence staring Boris Karloff immediately contradicts itself. Karloff plays his usual type of role and looked like he hadn't slept in at least a fortnight. Margaret Lindsay stole the show for me with a charming and well-judged performance.I guess the secret of this movie's success for me, is that I was never entirely sure until the end, just exactly who was on which side. It's all about suspense and tension and this movie just about pulled that off. A few clichés throughout, but this was made in war time and are therefore forgivable. A stirring speech at the end to round off a movie that kept my attention and is worth a view.

***Spoilers*** 1940 movie made during the hight of the German Blitz on England in WWII about a German Zappaline air attack on London in 1917 during WWI with a complicated story about British and German spies and double as well as even triple agents in both England and Germany.

Boris Karloff is at his creepiest best as the German spy or British double agent Valdar, you never really know until the end of the movie who he really is. On the bloody Western Front in France every British military operation is met by the German Army with the British being soundly beaten. Someone is supplying the Germans with secret British military information which has them get the jump on the British forces before they even start their attack.

The British have their top spy Williams inside Germany and in an attempt to get him out of the country plan to pick him up behind the German lines with an airplane flown by Let. Frank Bennett, Bruce Lester. As usual the Germans get the information about Bennetts's flight and shoot him down over the battlefield. In the field hospital the badly wounder Bennett is cared for by a British volunteer nurse Helene, Margaret Lindsey, whom Bennett falls in love with. It later turns that Helene is really the German spy Helene Von Lorbeer who back in Berlin is sent to England to work for British Cabinate Minister Arthur Bennett, Holmes Herbert, who's also Frank's father.

The movie "British Intellengence" goes on with Helene getting in touch with her fellow German spies in England including Valdar who also works for the Bennett household. You never really know who Helene and Valdar work for, the British or the Germans or both, until almost the very end which leaves you up in the air to whats happening in the film. There's also this top German spy Strendler who is giving the British all this trouble on their efforts in breaking the up and stalling the German advance on the Western Front. You also don't know until the very end of the movie just who he really is even though it's not really that hard to figure out.

The movie takes a surprise turn later on when Let. Bennett who was recovered from his wounds and with his air unit sent back to England. Coming home Let. Bennett finds Helene at his father estate and recognizes her as the nurse who treated him back in France and who he fell in love with. It's then when we get an idea just who Helene is and for what country, Germany or England, she's spying for.

The ending is very contrived with the German Master Spy Strendler, guess who, setting up the entire British Cabinate to be blown up at the Bennett Estate, where their to meet, with a bomb that he planted there. Strendler is unexpectedly foiled by the Germans themselves by them staging a zeppelin attack on the city of London killing Strendler and his fellow German spies in the process: Poetic Justic I presume?

Whats so interesting about the movie is how it treats the Germans at a time when those who made the movie were either at war with Germany or very sympathetic to the country that was fighting the Germans at that time in 1940 the United Kingdom. There was one scene in the movie that really hit me when Valdar tells Helene about how the German Army murdered his wife and child and left him for dead with two bullets in his back which in fact was a lie on his part. Helene very convincingly defended the Germans by telling him that in the heat of war both the Germans like the British commit unspeakable acts in order to win.

This statement by Helen came across as both honest and eye opening, totally minus of wartime propaganda, for a war movie that was made during the time when the country or countries who made it, the US & UK, were either at war or about to go to war against the country of the person, Helene, who made that very profound and intelligent statement.