Gli amori di una spia

Myrna Loy is a German spy on a mission to Istanbul. It is of the highest importance to Germany; the entire course of the war may depend on it. But she has met an American, George Brent, and is in love. Can she carry out her job through the haze of conflicting emotions?

Miss Loy had reached stardom through her amazing beauty, and had been cast for the last five years as exotics, and here she is again. But she had already made the switch to Americans in comedies, beginning with Frank Capra the previous year, and more important for her career at MGM, in MANHATTAN MELODRAMA and THE THIN MAN. Yet here she is at her old job, and it looks a little tired, despite the pre-code touches. Still, the MGM gloss and James Wong Howe's lighting cover up a multitude of sins. With Lionel Atwill, C. Henry Gordon, and Leo G. Carroll in his screen debut.

By the time this movie was shown, Myrna Loy had grown into the American sweetheart that made her a natural in the Thin Man and other great films. She might have pulled off this role better a few years earlier when she more looked the part (and was made up to be) of the mysterious woman. She looks neither the spy Fräulein Doktor nor in love -- granted she does look good nonetheless. Story line is fair but one wonders why a medical student has the means and time to leave wartime Germany to cross the border into Turkey? Basic question is whether Myrna will complete her mission successfully or succumb to the charms of George Brent having just burned Mata Hari for falling in love. Scenes where the lovers and later Myrna and her boss openly discuss in a hotel room her role as a spy obviously predate hidden microphones. An American doing nothing about a German spy who will not give up her career for him is probably technically true (the story is based upon an actual incident) but still is a stretch. Lionel Atwill C. Henry Gordon do very well as the heavies. Some excellent camera work with good shadows and interesting transitions. One of the Turkish hotel scenes looks remarkably like the same set used later in Ninotchka. Not a great movie, but not bad either. Recommended.

There is a brief scene in Stamboul Quest, as Leo G. Carroll's character stops by the entrance to a building in Berlin to look at the metal plaques attached by the entrance, identifying the business occupants. In German, the signs identify a notary, a lawyer and, in German and English, an American Dentist. Carroll paused for only a few seconds, and if not for a screen capture I made, I would not be able to check out the attention to detail that the art director or prop man put into this minor set piece. When I visited Berlin, I saw business plaques just like those in this movie, made in Culver City, which is a long way from Berlin. From the prologue at the start, describing in general terms the difference between espionage and counter-espionage, to Lionel Atwill's fine portrayal of a spymaster, Stamboul Quest is a picture ahead of its time. Transmitting coded messages in a tooth filling is not a procedure you see in many movies. There is also a love story, Myrna Loy's character, Fraulein Doktor, falling in love with the American medical student (George Brent) who gets entangled with the spies by going to the American Dentist when the counterespionage agents raid the office. 25 years later, Leo G. Carroll was the spymaster who takes advantage of Cary Grant being mistaken for George Kaplan, a fictitious agent created to catch real spies. Carroll and company notice the gallows humor in Grant's predicament, just as Atwill also finds humor in George Brent's character mistakenly getting locked up for being a spy. George Brent, on loan to MGM after going on suspension at Warners (Jack Warner must have liked Brent, since Warners was a studio that had a track record ruining actor's careers by refusing to loan them out to other studios on reasonable terms e.g. Wayne Morris blocked from working in The Killers, in the role that made Lancaster a star), is great as the medical student. As he and Myrna Loy check into the hotel in Turkey, Brent tosses into the air the coin that is the tip for the porter. The porter reaches for the coin, Brent says you mustn't reach, catches the coin first and gives it to the porter. Sort of a mean joke, but an action Herman J. Mankiewicz, the screenwriter or maybe the director, Sam Wood, saw in real life and put into the movie to make Brent's character look authentic. The effort MGM's professional staff put into this fine spy movie shows up on the screen

With a Title that will do Nothing but Alienate Modern Movie Watchers this Pre-WWI Tale of a Real Life Female Infiltrator (not Mati Hari) is a So-So, Complex, Talky, Awkward Film that has some Appealing Actors like Myrna Loy (sporting a dazzling wardrobe with Flying Saucer hats) and Lionel Atwill, Among Others (no George Brent is not appealing in any way).

The First Act is in Deep Danger of Ruining the Intent of the Film as it has Brent Stalking Loy and his Relentless Advances and her Constant Rejection becomes Intolerable. But when She Finally Succombs and takes Him on as an "Assistant" things Settle Down to Watchable.

There is some Neat Spy Stuff like Messages in Tooth Fillings, Invisible Ink, and a Very Odd Scene where Body Art takes on a New Meaning. It is All Handled with MGM's Slick Sheen and the Result is Worth a Watch but as a Whole it is too Silly at Times and too Complicated by a Half to be Anything More than just Good.

Before her sophisticated flair for comedy was discovered, Myrna Loy played many roles that relied on her exotic beauty.

One is Stamboul Quest from 1934, also starring George Brent. Loy plays a German spy, Annemarie, a sort of Mati Hari, a love 'em and leave 'em type adept at gathering information.

In 1915, her boss, German Counter-Intelligence Chief Von Sturm (Lionel Atwill) asks her to go to Turkey, as he believes Ali Bey, a Turkish Comannder for the Dardenelles, is selling secrets to the British.

While she is attempting to carry out this mission, she meets Douglas Beall (Brent) and although she fights it, she falls in love with him, helping him to get into Turkey as her servant under her passport. This makes for many complications.

Melodramatic, with Loy luminescent as well as resplendent in her various outfits. Brent is mustacheless and lively, though in later years we would see a mustached and more somber version.

The plot is a little complicated, but the two stars are worth seeing.