Yesterday, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greenygal and I went to see a double-feature at the local arthouse cinema -- The Spy in Black and Contraband.
If you ever get a chance, I'd suggest you'd see these, especially Contraband. Both these films were made in England, in 1939 and 1940, and are interesting for that fact alone.
The Spy in Black has Conrad Veidt playing Capt. Hardt, a WW1 U-boat captain (and boy, Jack Harkness wasn't kidding when he got on the Ninth Doctor's case for his choice of jackets...) who recieves orders to rendevous with a spy on the Orkneys who has a cover identity as the village schoolmistress; the plan is to get information about the British Naval base and local ship movements. It gets complicated from there, but it never forgets that everyone on both sides was a human being, with all the foibles and failings inherent in that fact.
Contraband has Veidt playing a Danish freighter captain (apparently, Veidt looked fantastic in long naval coats -- he was certainly tall enough to carry them well) who is diverted into a British contraband inspection port. While he and his first officer are invited ashore for dinner with Royal Navy officers, their shore passes are stolen. As he is responsible for all his passengers, Capt. Andersen decides to sneak ashore and track down his wayward passengers, and thus gets involved in a sometimes zany spy caper. The part where he gets all the staff of the restaurant owned by the brother of his first officer to help him find and rescue the leading lady is kind of hilarious, especially in his rousing "We are Danes, are we not? We like a fight, do we not?" speech (and makes me wonder what the British stereotypes about Danes were at the time, since I've never heard anything about Danes being particularly noted brawlers). A freighter captain and 5 waiters dress up in white ties and tails to start a bar fight as a distraction -- and are aided by a few clueless British bar-goers who seem to be lifted right out of the Drones Club -- in a bid to defeat a nest of German spies. It was a surprisingly light-hearted romp, and one of the few times Veidt got to play the hero in his English-language work.
I did especially love the part where the spies capture Capt. Andersen and Mrs. Sorensen, and upon learning his name, one of the mooks sarcastically replies, "And we are the Brothers Grimm." The fact that it was filmed on actual city streets for some of the scenes would be an invalueable resource for anyone writing fiction set in the period.
greenygal and I went to see a double-feature at the local arthouse cinema -- The Spy in Black and Contraband.If you ever get a chance, I'd suggest you'd see these, especially Contraband. Both these films were made in England, in 1939 and 1940, and are interesting for that fact alone.
The Spy in Black has Conrad Veidt playing Capt. Hardt, a WW1 U-boat captain (and boy, Jack Harkness wasn't kidding when he got on the Ninth Doctor's case for his choice of jackets...) who recieves orders to rendevous with a spy on the Orkneys who has a cover identity as the village schoolmistress; the plan is to get information about the British Naval base and local ship movements. It gets complicated from there, but it never forgets that everyone on both sides was a human being, with all the foibles and failings inherent in that fact.
Contraband has Veidt playing a Danish freighter captain (apparently, Veidt looked fantastic in long naval coats -- he was certainly tall enough to carry them well) who is diverted into a British contraband inspection port. While he and his first officer are invited ashore for dinner with Royal Navy officers, their shore passes are stolen. As he is responsible for all his passengers, Capt. Andersen decides to sneak ashore and track down his wayward passengers, and thus gets involved in a sometimes zany spy caper. The part where he gets all the staff of the restaurant owned by the brother of his first officer to help him find and rescue the leading lady is kind of hilarious, especially in his rousing "We are Danes, are we not? We like a fight, do we not?" speech (and makes me wonder what the British stereotypes about Danes were at the time, since I've never heard anything about Danes being particularly noted brawlers). A freighter captain and 5 waiters dress up in white ties and tails to start a bar fight as a distraction -- and are aided by a few clueless British bar-goers who seem to be lifted right out of the Drones Club -- in a bid to defeat a nest of German spies. It was a surprisingly light-hearted romp, and one of the few times Veidt got to play the hero in his English-language work.
I did especially love the part where the spies capture Capt. Andersen and Mrs. Sorensen, and upon learning his name, one of the mooks sarcastically replies, "And we are the Brothers Grimm." The fact that it was filmed on actual city streets for some of the scenes would be an invalueable resource for anyone writing fiction set in the period.
From:
no subject