The Spy in Black

A film set off the coast of Scotland during the First World War. Hardt, a German submarine commander, comes back from leave and is given a new mission: he will go to the Orkney Islands, meet a contact there and prepare a strike against the British fleet. He lands. The person he is to meet is a woman working as a schoolteacher. She gives him information and the plan proceeds. The question at the centre is who is who. The narrative keeps information from the audience as well; everything given takes on another meaning later. What is interesting about the production is its point of view. The film was made in Britain just before the war and builds the narrative from the German officer's side. Hardt is shown with respect and intelligence. Conrad Veidt plays Hardt. Valerie Hobson and Sebastian Shaw are in the cast. Emeric Pressburger wrote the screenplay and it was his first work with Michael Powell; in the years after, the pair made some of the most original productions in British cinema together. The submarine sections and the island footage mix studio with location. A solid choice for anyone who likes spy films and British cinema before the war. For a viewer expecting action, the film is built on talk and waiting.