A Call to Spy

This excellent film is based in substantial part upon the book A Woman of No Importance , a biography of Virginia Hall. She was an American ex-pat who spoke fluent French and had lived in France, Turkey and Italy in the run upwto WW2. From a well to do Baltimore family she had tried to attain a diplomatic position for America to no avail during this time which was according to the book and hardly to be doubted due to the fact that she was female and disabled. She had a hunting accident in the 1930s where she shot herself in the foot and lost part of a leg below the knee and had. prosthesis. Fast forward, volunteering being recruited by and joining the newly created British Special Operations Executive(SOE) she was instrumental in developing a part of the very nascent French resistance movement in 1941-1942 and then doing the same just before or after DDay when she went back to France. I do not want to spoil the story which is incredible. Read the book which I thought was inspiring first, then watch the movie. The movie also covers the story of Vera Atkins, and there's a biography of her, as well as Noor a female spy. Parenthetically for me, the story of these three women, and there were many, who risked everything when everything was at stake is refreshing. Why? Because what they did and their courage when they were up against it, makes the current nonsense of American nonsense pale in comparison. Get out and vote and kudos to those on the front lines fighting it out for justce now. These women are an inspiration to that. Search out Marta Gellhorn's interview on you tube. She told it like it was, and like it is.

Another puzzle under all the second war movies that completes the resistance machinery agains the German Gestapo.

Some British women took important functions to spy out the Nazis in France. It is well done with atmosphere and costumes. If you are Interested in this genre check it out. It was never boring and the actors played their roles very good. Solid 6/10.

The BBC, in their wisdom, covered this same topic as a series (1987-1990) called Wish Me Luck - a very well-made drama centered on the work done by civilian volunteers for the SOE in WWII France. I watched it on Amazon a year or so back but it is now currently unavailable to stream. If it ever does come back, watch it perhaps in conjunction with this movie and the other movie people have mentioned in their reviews (Female Agents) which I have yet to see.

This succeeds in highlighting the important (and often under-looked) true story of female spies in WWII. I was already familiar with Vera Atkins and Virginia Hall and it was nice to see their stories put to film. It was great learning the heroic story of Noor Inayat Khan too. "A Call To Spy" is the kind of film that gets you researching the true events after. More people should know about these women.

As a film itself, it definitely had a TV-movie vibe. The script was rather woeful at times and occasionally the acting came across quite wooden. It still did enough to tell the stories though, while keeping my interest. I would have thought a film depicting the heroic actions of spies in WWII would have more tension and better pacing though.

It felt a bit too long at times, and during the first 20 minutes, I wrestled whether to abandon it entirely. I felt the story of these women deserved my time though, so I persisted and I'm mostly glad I did.

Sarah Megan Thomas delivered a particularly good performance as Virginia Hall. You could easily tell she was passionate about this film and the story of these women. Stana Katic had great chemistry with her too.

A few months ago I watched the reality docuseries "Churchill's Secret Agents: The New Recruits", which depicted the SOE in WWII. I highly recommend watching that series before watching this, as it gave a fantastic education and background to the roles of these brave men and women. As a movie? "A Call To Spy" is rather lacklustre and has its share of shortcomings. As a story? Everyone should know about it.

Good to see the role of women as spies in WWII highlighted here. Am somewhat surprised by the very high ratings given here. It was a good movie but not one you'll be thinking about greatly once the credits have rolled. Possibly this is because the film lacks a truly persistent sense of danger. One would normally expect to encounter several 'on the edge of the seat' scenarios in a film about spies and Nazis and the notorious Klaus Barbie. But this was something I barely experienced throughout. The overall acting was always understated and little more than adequate. It was not bad nor was it terrific. Despite some good production values the lack of intensity is the most obvious deficiency made even more apparent when considering the subject matter. The 7 stars is a generous assessment.