Odd Combination of Wartime Espionage, Political Intrigue, Nationalism, Film-Noir, and Slapstick. Not Surprisingly Not All of it Worked so Well. Deborah Kerr is an Irish Beauty who Hates the Brits and is Loathsome of Cromwell (much humor is made of this) and is Out to Join the IRA for Some Payback.It's Convoluted Plot Waivers, Confuses, and the Humor Never Meshes. This is One that the Parts are Better than the Whole. Trevor Howard is a Doting and Bland Waste and has a Lot of Screen Time and that Doesn't Help. The Nazi Spies are the Best Part and the Scenes where They are in Full Evil Mode are what Keeps the Movie Afloat. Along with the Effervescent Kerr.Only the Brits Could Find a Horse and Buggy Chase (this is WWII not Sherlock Holmes) Very Exciting and the Bathroom Fight in the End is Just Out of Place and Embarrassing. Overall, Worth a Watch for Kerr, but Film-Noir, Spy, and WWII Fans are Likely to be Divided. Offbeat and Historically Interesting Enough to be Something Special, but as Entertainment and a Full Fledged Film, Not So Much.

Bridie O'Debrah Kerr is a feisty, hot blooded, tempestuous, Irish lass who leaves her small village at 21 to go to the big city to join the IRA. She gets rebuffed and pours paint over a statue of Oliver Cromwell because she is feisty and hot-blooded. Soon she falls in with Nazi spies and joins them in helping another spy escape by waylaying Trevor Howard who is a British military officer and of course he is nuts about her. The spy escapes but now she must complete a mission to get the top secret plans the Nazi's want. But first she has to push one of her conspirators off a cliff from a wheelchair into the sea below (he's dead anyway). She manages to get the secrets notebook but realizes it may cost the lives of English and Irishmen, so she burns it.Now some more Nazi's appear and kidnap her and Trevor who has followed her and they proceed in a carriage behind a funeral procession of carriages with a coffin filled with whiskey and alarm clocks (honest). They escape and then she decides to turn herself in but now it's D-Day and she doesn't have to so they get married but on her wedding night she bolts from the hotel with her suitcase and runs away because the name of the Inn is The Cromwell Arms and since she hates him she won't stay there (honest).The movies vacillates between pretty good espionage and yucks so it sort of misses the mark. I could see Maureen O'Hara playing this part but Kerr got it instead.The most exciting thing for me was seeing Joan Hickson in a minor role as a hotel proprietress some 40 plus years before she came to fame as Miss Marple on the Agatha Christie Mystery series on PBS.This film is OK, I watched it in the late afternoon when it was absolutely pouring outside and there was nothing else to do,it's good for that, and that's about all: A lousy day time killer.

Isn't she just absolutely gorgeous! This is an amazing example of film noir that also manages to include a good deal of humour - ironically about times and events that were not particularly humorous. Debora Kerrs character is a beautiful and somewhat naive young lady - but decidedly full of spirit! and operating on the philosophy that 'my enemy's enemy must be my friend'. The film is supported with the introduction of a wide range of characters as the film unfolds. Viewed many times, I could always do so again. For location buffs - The English town scenes are filmed at Dunster (Somerset)- The medieval yarn market is clearly visible in the background, and I adore her assertion that, 'it all depends which side I'm being neutral on!' Perfect.

Enjoyed seeing how young Deborah Kerr appeared in this picture at the age of twenty-four years. Deborah plays the role as Birdie Quilty who works in her families pub in England and heard all kinds of stories told by people who visited the pub about how Ireland fought against the British years ago and she starts to form a hated toward the English Government. Birdie becomes of age and wants to go to Dublin, Ireland to live and work and she meets up with some very strange people who have listened to Birdie talk about England and they decide to utilize her hatred towards the British Nation for their own benefits. Birdie finds herself in some very difficult situations until she meets up with a British Lt. David Baynes, (Trevor Howard) who seems to fall madly in love with Birdie at first seeing her and on other dates, it becomes serious. However, Birdie has so many dark secrets that she does not want to show any affections towards David and this still does not stop David from following her from one country to another. This is a very great film with plenty of funny moments and at other times can be very dark and mysterious. Enjoy.