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The Spy in Black

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6.4/10 • 61

1939-08-031h 22m

WarThriller

Today's U-boat terror makes this the year's timeliest picture!

A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.

Directors
Michael Powell
Editors
Hugh Stewart

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Conrad Veidt

    Conrad Veidt

    Captain Ernst Hardt

  2. Sebastian Shaw

    Sebastian Shaw

    Ashington

  3. Valerie Hobson

    Valerie Hobson

    The School Mistress

  4. Marius Goring

    Marius Goring

    Lieutenant Felix Schuster

  5. June Duprez

    June Duprez

    Anne Burnett

  6. Athole Stewart

    Athole Stewart

    The Rev. Hector Matthews

  7. Agnes Lauchlan

    Agnes Lauchlan

    Mrs. Matthews

  8. Helen Haye

    Helen Haye

    Mrs. Sedley

  9. Cyril Raymond

    Cyril Raymond

    The Rev. John Harris

Reviews2

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Peter McGinn Avatar

Peter McGinn

Apr 27, 2021

7/10

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.

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  • The Spy in Black poster
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  • The Spy in Black poster
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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$4,700,000.00
Revenue
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Keywords
northern englandsubmarineworld war isea battlegerman spybritish fleetgerman navytriple agenttorpedoed shiporkneycounter-espionageimposter