El fantasma del mar

Her husband was killed during the war. Yet Märta Torén is told that he is alive. She and scientist Ludwig Donath are taken about a submarine... which turns out to be a U-boat commanded by Robert Douglas, engaged by an unnamed enemy to deliver Donath, Douglas is despicable, of course, but even more despicable is Macdonald Carey, who seems to be a German doctor, part of Douglas' crew.

Douglas Sirk's first movie under his long-term contract with Universal is a slow Cold War thriller, filled with the sort of warm-blooded characters amidst the cold-blooded creatures who control the society she moves among: Douglas, of course, who tells her she will be his; the US Attorney who seems intent on trying her for treason; even Carey, at first.

Although the first half of it is set in an uncertain and mysterious world to the audience, the second half turns into one of those submarine war movies. It is informed with paranoia, that the war is not over. It seems to have been the way Universal thought one could make one of those movies without setting it during the Second World War, a subject that was already growing stale to the public. It would return in the form of service comedies.

Not every film of a great director is filled with identifying and interesting touches, and this is a case in point. (Having sat through three such films yesterday -- the others being "Slightly French" and "Sleep, My Love" -- the point was made ad nauseum.) Not a bad picture, but a pretty dull one. The never-very-interesting Macdonald Carey is the leading man, and the supporting cast is generally lacking in interest (particularly the US G-men, who seem barely to be professional actors), but leading lady Marta Toren has moments of interest (and is quite beautiful), and it is always nice to see Carl Esmond (a/k/a Willy Eichberger), a character actor who lived to the ripe old age of 102 and began his career with a memorable performance in Ophuls's "Liebelei." On the whole, though, this is a film for those (like me) who feel obliged to see everything directed by the great Sirk -- who, when he was fully engaged, was among the greatest.