The Spy in Black 1939

     The setting of this film begins on Saturday March 17, 1917.  The operation is to destroy the British fleet at Scapa Flow in 1917.  A German U-Boat captain is sent on a spying mission to the North of Scotland during WWI.  The U-boat surfaces on the coast of Scotland and Captain Hardt leaves the vessel.  He travels to a small village to meet his contact.  He finds more than he bargained for in his contact the local schoolmistress!!  He plans to use the treacherous assistance of disgraced Royal Navy Commander Ashington.  He lost his command due to drunkenness and he agrees to guide the Germans to the location of the British fleet.  Nothing goes smoothly or as planned.  

    Even for it’s age and shot in black and white this film is very interesting and good.  There are surprises that you don’t see coming!!  Filmed at Denham Studios, location shooting at Northchurch Common in Berkhamsted Hertfordshire in Orkney Scotland.  5* (I really liked this movie)   
      
77 min, War directed by Michael Powell and written by J. Storer, Emeric Pressburger and Roland Pertwee with Conrad Veidt, Sebastian Shaw, Valerie Hobson, Marius Goring, June Duprez, Athole Stewart, Agnes Lauchlan, Helen Haye, Cyril Raymond, George Summers, Hay Petrie, Grand Sutherland, Robert Rendel, Mary Morris Margaret Moffat.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 with 1,892 reviews, 100% with 13 critics 71% audience with 433 ratings, Letterboxd 3.4* out of 5*, www.radiotimes.com 3* out of 5*, Amazon 4* out of 5* with 52 reviews. 

Special Note:  The British Board of Film Censors passed this film on March 10, 139 and reviewed the film in the Monthly Film Bulletin in March 1939.  The film did not reach cinemas until August 3, 1939.  It closed on September 2, 1939 because WW2 was declared and the British government closed all cinemas for safety reasons.  There was a U29 in the German Navy during the Great War.  It was sunk in 1915 when rammed by HMS Dreadnought.  In America, this film was titled U-Boat 29.  This is the first collaboration of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.  A yer later Conrad Veidt is a Danish Sea Captain and Valerie Hobson is a British Secret Agent.  They are trying to uncover a German spring ring operating in WWII in London.  The tile of this film is Contraband 1940.