A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
Conrad Veidt
Captain Ernst Hardt
Sebastian Shaw
Ashington
Valerie Hobson
The School Mistress
Marius Goring
Lieutenant Felix Schuster
June Duprez
Anne Burnett
Athole Stewart
The Rev. Hector Matthews
Agnes Lauchlan
Mrs. Matthews
Helen Haye
Mrs. Sedley
Cyril Raymond
The Rev. John Harris
George Summers
Captain Ratter
Hay Petrie
Engineer
Grant Sutherland
Bob Bratt
Robert Rendel
Admiral
Mary Morris
Chauffeuse
Margaret Moffatt
Kate
Kenneth Warrington
Commander Denis
Torin Thatcher
Submarine Officer
Esma Cannon
Maggie
Cyril Chamberlain
Bit Part (uncredited)
Bryan Herbert
Corporal Guarding POW's on Ferry
Skelton Knaggs
German Sailor looking for Capt. Hardt
Howard Marion-Crawford
German Officer in Kieler Hof Hotel
Bernard Miles
Hans - Hotel Receptionist
John Penrose
Newlywed at Kiel Hotel
Johnnie Schofield
Armed Guard of POWs on Ferry
Diana Sinclair-Hall
Undetermined Minor Role (uncredited)
Graham Stark
Bell Boy (uncredited)
Jack Lambert
Passport Official (uncredited)
Jeanne Macintyre
German Girl (uncredited)
Jack Sharp
Director
Michael Powell
Scenario Writer
Roland Pertwee
Screenplay
Emeric Pressburger
Story
J. Storer Clouston
April 27, 2021
7
This is a classic black and white spy thriller, thought of highly enough to be part of a national project to restore old films.
The movie is entertaining, with a couple of departures from normal thrillers, I think (though I am not a follower of the genre). The bulk of the story is told from the perspective of the Germans, the enemy, as it were. It would be like the movie The Alamo being told from the perspective of Santa Anna’s Mexican army. Also, the ending is unusual compared to a modern thriller, where then good guy and bad guy usually square off and settle things in a climactic final scene.
But they do produce a plot twist, the norm for any spy movie, and it works. It is a short movie, well under 90 minutes, and it moves right along. The lack of color adds to the atmosphere of the film. The script is fine. Oddly, several lines are delivered in German with no translation, but obviously nothing critical is left out because of it. You can sort of get what they must be saying and they are brief bits of dialogue.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch this movie a second time, but I don’t regret the time spent watching it.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$4,668,069.00
Revenue:
$0.00