5.6
Lilli Marlene, a French girl working as a bar maid in her uncle's café in Benghazi, Libya, turns out to be the girl that the popular German wartime song Lili Marleen had been written for before the war, so both the British and the Germans try to use her for propaganda purposes - especially as it turns out that she can sing as well. When the Germans kidnap her in Cairo and she starts appearing in radio broadcasts from Berlin, her British soldier friends think that she's joined the enemy. They couldn't be more wrong, because after the war it turns out that her songs over the radio contained secret messages to London from British agents in Berlin.
Lisa Daniely
Lilli Marlene
Hugh McDermott
Steve
Richard Murdoch
Flight Lieutenant Murdoch / Capt. Wimpole
Leslie Dwyer
Berry
Estelle Brody
Estelle
Cecil Brock
O'Riley
John Blythe
Holt
Stanley Baker
Evans
Ben Williams
Brownie
Russell Hunter
Scottie
Marcel Poncin
Lestoque
Judith Warden
Auntie
Lawrence O'Madden
Col. Wharton
Stuart Lindsell
Major Phillips
Olaf Olsen
Nazi Officer
Irene Prador
Nurse Schmidt
Aud Johansen
Nurse Melke
Carl Jaffe
Propaganda Chief
Philo Hauser
Fratzell
Richard Marner
SS Colonel
Peter Swanwick
Chief Interrogator
Walter Gotell
Director of Propaganda
Arthur Lawrence
Lieber
Rufus Cruikshank
Sgt. Bull
Barbara Cummings
Shirley
Neil Tuson
Producer
Conrad Phillips
Security Officer
Kenneth Cleveland
Security Officer
Michael Ward
Wintertree
Director
Arthur Crabtree
Writer
Leslie Wood
May 26, 2023
6
Lisa Daniely is quite engaging as the eponymous character in this post-war homage to the sweethearts whose songs lifted many an heart during the hardships of WWII. She is working in a small North African bar that finds itself controlled by the British, the Nazis, then the British again - with both sides aware that she is the source of the legendary song, and with both equally aware of her enormous propaganda value. Amidst all this toing and froing, she meets and gradually falls for "Steve" (Hugh McDermott) before being recaptured by the Nazis and taken to Berlin where she is encouraged to make broadcasts in English to smash morale. Nobody will sing this song like Marlene Dietrich, but Daniely makes a decent fist of her frequent renditions - in English and German - and her porcelain-like features and delicacy of performance engender a sense of her vulnerability as she is but a pawn in a dangerous game. McDermott could never be described as versatile and it's all grin and smart-assed quips from him here too. The production has been nowhere near a desert, but as wartime feel good films go this is at the more entertaining end with just enough menace from some nasty Nazis to remind you that it could all have been true!
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$0.00
Revenue:
$0.00