British Intelligence (1940)

The year 1917. Helene Von Lorbeer, a British secret agent infiltrating German intelligence & posing as one of their spies, is given the task of supporting one of their top agents, the shadowy Franz Steindler, who is working in British territory. Steindler has been responsible for the death of a British spy & has been highly successful in spilling British military secrets to the Germans. Going under the name of Frances Hautry, Helene arrives in Britain as a French refugee from German territory. Settling into the household of Arthur Bennett, a lawyer working with the British war cabinet, Hautry is contacted by Bennett's butler Valdar, who is actually a German agent posing as a British spy, although what nobody in the house knows is actually Steindler himself. Valdar & Hautry team up to attempt to assassinate the entire British cabinet but the local police, under the command of Colonel Yeats, are closing in on them fast.British Intelligence (known in some places as Enemy Agent) is a British wartime spy thriller made in 1940 – in the midst of World War II – but actually set in World War I. It is a remake of a 1930 film, which in turn was based on a play named Three Faces East.Not much of a fan of WWII-era spy thrillers, I was expecting this to be an average affair. But the film surprised me. It is taut, very suspenseful & had more twists than a bag of pretzels. The film is also filled with good acting, particularly from Boris Karloff, who plays a triple agent working for the Germans. The film might have been set in WWI but there are tell-tale signs of its era – at the end Leonard Mudie delivers a monologue claiming to hate war but saying that it is necessary in case any tyrant arises who threatens world peace – a clear reference to Nazi Germany & its evil tyrant Hitler.The film is quite unusual in that its pace is quite fast for a spy thriller – at little over an hour long it doesn't overstay its welcome & the climax with Karloff caught & trying to escape, only to become a victim of his own side's Zeppelin bombs, is exciting enough to make this a good example of the 1940s wartime spy thrillers. It might not be a masterpiece but it is definitely better than something like Submarine Alert, which came out around the same time.

France 1917 and every British offensive is met by abject failure almost as though the Germans have been getting prior notice of every British plan to deal a knockout blow to the enemy . A spy is suspected within British headquarters and steps are taken to find him It goes without saying the thinking behind this film released by Warner Brothers in 1940 but I'll say it anyway that Europe was at war and just like last time it's the Germans who were the bad guys . There was one slight difference and that was America wasn't strictly neutral this time . You can say that she wasn't neutral in 1914-18 either but it wasn't cut and dried that America wouldn't join the side of France and Britain in 1917 since it had a very large influx of German and Irish migrants and the slaughter of the American Civil War was still within living memory and was being played out in Europe on an even bigger scale and if it wasn't for the Zimmerman telegram America probably wouldn't have joined the conflict America didn't join the Second World War until December 1941 when the attack on Pearl Harbor and a subsequent declaration of war by Nazi Germany led to American siding with Britain but it did have an empathy with Britain to a degree and this film unashamedly shows it . The Germans are of course inherently bad and live up to every single stereotype of being arrogant . We're shown very early in the film a German stating " we will rule the world and if we don't rule it now with the Kaiser we will rule it later and with someone else " . I suppose if you want to rule the world then a Boheminan corporal is a good substitute for royalty ENEMY AGENT does contain a few good scenes but suffers from trying to do a bit too much . Obviously being a propaganda piece a population not yet at war might get slightly bored with seeing arrogant Germans strutting about on screen all the time so we get corny scenes where a British pilot declares his love for a French nurse by saying " I've fallen in love with you " which will elicit a groan . It should also be pointed out that the British stereotypes match their German counterparts by either being posh boys or chirpy cockneys guv

With my 8th IMDb anniversary being on the same day as a bank holiday,I decided take advantage of the day,by taking a look at Boris Karloff in a non-Horror role for the first ever time.The plot:Taking advantage of having recently won a battle which has forced The Allies to retreat,a German army officer decides to send double agent Helene Von Lorbeer undercover to a house that is used for meetings by the UK government.Arriving to the house,Lorbeer is met by a fellow undercover agent called Valdar,who tells Lorbeer that she must watch her step as she gathers information from government minister's.As Helene starts to get deeper into the workings of the government,Lorbeer begins to fear that some minister's may be starting to come suspicious of her true identity.View on the film:Mostly going against the grain of the time, (with the exception of the flag waving ending) in his adaptation of Anthony Paul Kelly's stage play,the screenplay by Lee Katz tells the story of the film from the point of view of the German's,with Katz gradually increasing the tension as he reveals the lengths that the German's will go to for picking up any information on The Allies.Backed by a lively score from Heinz Roemheld and Bernhard Kaun and also having a surprisingly good public domain print,director Terry O. Morse superbly uses candle lights to create a chilling espionage atmosphere,with Boris Karloff emphasising Morse's chilling feel with a very good creepy performance,and the cute Margaret Lindsay giving a good performance which shows Von Lorbeer's increasing fear of her true identity being uncovered by British intelligence.

All the combatants seemed to sidle into the First World War crabwise, without really intending to do much other than preserve national pride, and then, before you know it, kaboom. Barbara Tuchman, who wrote the prize-winning history "Guns of August," used to tell the story of a lecture she gave at a famous Midwestern university and being congratulated by a student for making the casus belli so clear. "I'd always wondered why they called the other one World War Two," said the student.Not that "British Intelligence" is about World War I anyway. It's set in 1917 but it was shot in 1940 as a spy mystery that shifted back and forth from Berlin to London. Except for some differences in uniforms and the use of Zeppelins instead of Heinkels, it's really World War II the movie is dealing with. The movie's speeches, which I won't bother repeating, practically hit us over the head with the real conflict. And here the Americans enter the war without having to be bombed into doing so.Boris Karloff is an obsequious French butler in a classy London house where all the British high staff seem to meet and trade secrets in front of open windows and whatnot. Karloff had his hands on some good roles in his time -- "Frankenstein", "The Body Snatchers" -- but this role demonstrates his weaknesses. He overplays it outrageously, fawning and bowing, and saying things like, "Here, let me help you with your coat." And his French accent is execrable. "Zeppelin" comes out "Zepp-lawn." Better he shouldn't have tried at all.The other performances are decent enough and there's nothing awry with the direction but it's rather a long, slow slog through hidden identities and intrigues. On the whole it's like watching a very old screenplay that has been dug up out of a shoe box on the back shelf and refurbished by Second Spin Ltd. It's not insulting -- it's not that bad -- it's just rather routine and dull.