Service secret britannique

This is an especially interesting film because although on the surface it is about WWI, it seems essentially about patriotism and fifth column activity for the coming WWII. It's second release as Enemy Agent (1940) testifies to the notion that the film is prophetic rather than historical. In fact, while watching the film it is very easy to forget that it has anything to do with WWI, except in terms of the young soldier who reappears late in the plot, originally having been introduced as wounded in a German hospital. Also, the statement by Thompson of "How many millions have been killed...and how many millions more must die just because one man sets himself above the almighty" seems like a timely reference to Hitler.

This is actually quite good.

The setup is easy to describe, you have several spies, two in particular. There's a sort of mystery about where their allegiance lies.

Its a simple idea, but done well, because this was a long-running play, so had the time work out the dramatic and narrative effects, much more attention than the normal script would have.

Its Germans as the bad guys, of course, evil just dripping in the way that it only could between the great German wars.

I like this because of the way it co-opts the detective form. The viewer is drawn in. Clearly there are bad guys and good ones, but you don't know which is which — who to cheer for — until the end. You're drawn in as a sort of virtual detective.

Everyone is watching everyone else. Its the motive and roles you must learn.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

***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.

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.

As one spy to another, Boris Karloff offers some advice: "The only way to be someone you are not is to be that person always, even in the presence of friends." This is a picture that keeps us guessing—just who is each person? It's a clever and very entertaining wartime thriller in which no one's identity is clear.

Set in 1917, the action is presented as directly relevant to the current events of 1940; more than one speech steps aside from the actual plot and appeals to an audience who would know exactly what was meant by references to future wars and to future lunatics who would again want to take over the world. The film's final speaker actually turns straight on to the camera for his inspirational closing sentences—the kind of exhortation that was frequent in WWII era films, that we rarely if ever see in pictures from any other era, and that can be strangely stirring even at this great distance.

Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay are both excellent, especially in their scenes together: their eyes are wonderfully expressive as they watch each other, play their roles, calculate loyalties and next moves.

Favorite moment: the late scene at the center of which Karloff purrs, "Excellent. But I'm afraid it won't quite do."

Definitely a spy vs. spy quickie worth watching.