Spia in nero

During the World War, a German U-boat comes up on the coast of Scotland. At this point Captain Hardt leaves the vessel and travels to a small village to meet his contact. He plans to use the treacherous assistance of bitter Royal Navy Lieutenant Ashington to guide the Germans to the spot of the British fleet. However not all is fair in love and war and Hardt soon finds his operation at risk of compromise.

Of course, much more famous for The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death, this film from Powell and Pressburger should not be over looked. While it is of course propaganda (released as it was in 1939), it is not a flag waving, lets all kill the Nazi's under the bed style film. Instead it stands up in it's own right as an exciting little thriller that makes some good points about the nature of war. The plot is quite straightforward at first but has a few nice twists that I won't spoil, and is generally enjoyable.

The strength of the film for me was the focus on a German Officer and not having him as a stereotypical evil tyrant. While the film doesn't let us wonder who the good guys and the bad guys are, it does at least allow Hardt to be more of a full person and the film better as a result. The ironies of the final action of the film is clear and is even more of a striking comment on war when you look at the `blue on blue' stats for Gulf War 2. Veidt does well in the lead as Hardt and is partly responsible for keeping him a bad guy without over egging the cake. Shaw and Hobson are good but perhaps a little too much of the `Heroic Brits' about them.

Overall this is a good wartime thriller but the unusual tack that it comes at, plus a darker and slightly subversive tone about it helps it stand out, if not from the rest of P&P's work, then certainly from the vast majority of wartime propaganda thrillers made in Britain around the second world war.

A deceptively and beautifully simple little film, a great start for the Powell and Pressburger collaboration, and good British propaganda fun too. Much too simple for most people today who would miss colour, violence, depravity, unfathomable plot and shaky camera work in their spy films.

Austere devilishly handsome German U Boat captain Conrad Veidt has convoluted spying mission in 1917 Scotland to locate the British fleet but finds himself being sidetracked with schoolmistress contact Valerie Hobson and the availability of butter. But even though WW1 is portrayed as more "civilised" than the coming war as in Colonel Blimp, oil and water must always remain just so. There's a fine cast of British stalwarts for example the seemingly legless Hay Petrie, some eccentric most with secrets, and high production values generally disguising occasionally flimsy sets and occasional implausibility. Rosza's music was high class too, nicely complementing the nitrate black and white film stock, which unfortunately has been allowed to deteriorate over the years but sometimes unintentionally lets you believe it really is 1917 and not 1939. As with Colonel Blimp 4 years later the German viewpoint with a sympathetic lead is told with a seeming impartiality, but after all there wasn't any doubt about the outcome. Even Chamberlain might've been hard to appease if Veidt's plans had been shown to bear fruit!

Throwaway - so why can't I throw it away? Entertaining, engrossing, amusing, nothing very heavy and even on the verge of war not a big flag-waver, so it's just the type of film I enjoy.

This excellent birth of "The Archers" just managed its London premiere the very week WWII was declared in Britain and all places of entertainment were ordered to close,albeit temporarily. Second of all Veidt was and is my favourite actor,having seen all but some rare silents from "Caligari" onwards. He was the definitive popular German swine(Eric Von,notwithstanding)although he did play many other parts - Jew Suss/Under The Red Robe,a mediaeval swashbuckler, the mysterious stranger in "Passing of the 3rd Floor,Back" or the aviator in "FP1"(English version). Shortly after fleeing the Nazis (whom he loathed) in the 30s he gladly set up a home near Korda's famous Denham studios and was a doting father to his daughter while soon becoming the tall and cultured idol of thousands of women.

He was also a Korda favourite and this first pairing with then one of Britain's favourite glamour girls.Valerie Hobson, following her brief success with Universal,he was rushed into another naval adventure,"Contraband" equally entertaining. Like,say, Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes", this is great escapist stuff with a mystery character at the centre of the story. But one point in the movie has always bothered me - just how does one manhandle a motor cycle up the steep conning tower of a submarine? We are never shown how Veidt managed it!

By the same token, how did Erik in "Phantom of the Opera" manage to get his organ/piano into his hideout amongst the Paris sewers? After all, we see the problem he had with the small boat! Curiously, Veidt's Nazi officer in "Escape" & "Casablanca" both died in the middle of a phone call while attempting the prevent an escape.

"Spy" has its share of amusing lines & allusions. On his entry at the start he & fellow submariner get seated at a crowded fashionable hotel anticipating a slap-up meal after a long period at sea only to be told almost every dish is "off" - even for naval officers. They leave in disgust & still starved. A while later when Hardt has been secretly landed on the Orkneys with motorcycle,late at night & having avoided discovery.he meets his contact V Hobson (a British agent posing as a local teacher)at home. Entering the kitchen he stops short & stares hard,alarming her and utters the word "boota!" in some disbelief which she interprets as "no,"butter!".and as he proceeds to dig with relish into a side of ham he remarks "These English - they are so long without their food!" The time was WW1 and an ironic comment on the German shortages - but the film's settings were equally appropriate to forthcoming WW2 conditions in Britain. During the film's production all the menacing signs of 1938/1939 were there but it seemed only Churchill was convinced of the inevitable when everyone wanted to believe Chamberlain. The film's scheduled release to London's Odeon cinema did not anticipate the decisive act of Germany's invasion of Poland.

Sadly, there was a real-life similarity in both Veidt's & Bing Crosby's sudden collapse just following a game of golf. Veidt had barely turned 50 as a Warner's star and still had lots to offer.

This is a World War I story of a German effort to defeat Britain's most powerful warships . 1917 , a German submarine captain (Conrad Veidt) returns from duty at sea during WWI and is assigned to infiltrate one of the Orkney Islands and obtain confidential British information . Then the undercover captain finds more than he bargained for in his contact , the local schoolmistress (Valerie Hobson) . Meanwhile , a submarine sets out to locate and sink the powerful Brit battleships during WWI in this most stirring account of the quest for the destruction of a English fleet located at an island.

Stars a great main cast helped by a fleet of the best Brit character players , all of them giving stunning acting . It's one of the first and important Brit pictures about warfare naval action and being based on real incidents . Known in the U. S. as ¨U-Boat 29¨, this movie is based on a J. Storer Couston novel . Well written by Storer Clouston (story) , script by Roland Pertwee and Emeric Pressburger , the latter developed a long teeming with director Michael Powell . This is a splendid British film concerning historic deeds during WWI , the naval battle in the Atlantic Ocean between German submarines and British battleships , dealing with a German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet . This picture is based on fact , but there have been complaints that is most inaccurate . Magnificent performances from Conrad Veidt as the German U-Boat captain is sent on a spying mission to the North of Scotland along with the attractive as well as adequate Valerie Hobson . The main and secondary cast are stunningly incarnated by a magnificent plethora of English actors , such as : Sebastian Shaw , Marius Goring , June Duprez , Helen Haye , Mary Morris , and brief uncredited appearances from Jack Lambert , Howard Marion-Crawford , Bernard Miles , Graham Stark , Torin Thatcher ; subsequently , some of them developing notorious Hollywood/British careers .

Lavishly financed by prestigious producer Alexander Korda and Irving Asher . Adding excellent scale models , though also used actual battle footage mixing with the miniatures , being well photographed in order to easier verisimilitude by forcing the perspective of the image to make the miniatures appear bigger and further apart. The producers knew that the use of scale models and explosions would have to look very realistic to be successful , as they hired expert FX technicians who were generally considered to be the best Brit team in the industry . The film contains an evocative and atmospheric cinematography in black and white by cinematographer Bernard Browne . As well as thrilling and emotive musical score by Miklós Rózsa to be continued a long and successful Hollywood career . The flick was stunningly directed by Michael Powell . This was the first film to pair Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger followed with Contraband in 1940 and going on to become an essential partnership in British film history . Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger created their production company : The Archers . They were usual collaborators , getting together to make a lot of films . Directing the following ones : The Tales of Hoffman, The Elusive Pimpernel, Pursuit of Graf Spee , The small black room, Black Narcisus , Contraband , The Thief of Bagdad , Edge of the World , Night ambush, The Lion has Wings , Spy in Black, One of out aircraft is missing , Life and death of Colonel Blimp, Canterbury Tale, among others . Many of them are deemed to be masterpieces , and being produced under banner their production The Archers . The picture will appeal to wartime genre buffs and British classic movie fans . Rating : 7/10. Better than average .

Just wanted to second the other user's comment.

I saw this last night as part of a Michael Powell/Emeric Pressberger retrospective underway at the American Cinemetheque. There are some unlikely aspects to the plot, but on the whole this is well crafted WWI thriller with a remarkable level of moral complexity, especially given that it was made and released just as England was entering a second war against Germany.

The protagonist (hero?) (played by the extraordinary Conrad Veidt) is a German officer on a spy mission and he is, in many respects, a quite admirable character. For the first half of the film, it's almost entirely from his point of view. It's hard to imagine Hollywood filmmakers EVER having the confidence that Powell and Pressberger clearly had in the intelligence of their audience, allowing them to actually like and admire an enemy agent.

While "The Spy in Black" eventually does come down squarely on the side of the English, the agents of the Kaiser come off only as perhaps a hair more ruthless than those fighting for king and country.

Of course, the Germany that England would be fighting within a few a few months would be far, far worse. This film is a potent reminder that while World War II might have a morally clear "good" war because of the vast evil of the Nazis, World War I was a horse of a far grayer color.

With sophisticated, occasionally black humor, this is a neat bit of old-fashioned movie entertainment with some genuinely intriguing differences. Enthusaistically recommended.