One of the great ironies of World War I was that Kaiser Wilhelm who built this great battle fleet to rival the British Navy never got to put it to real good use. Other than the inconclusive Battle Of Jutland the surface fleet sat out the war primarily. It was those U-Boats that in this war and the next were the primary weapon of the German Navy.Which brings us to this film. A plan calling for a U-Boat or two is drafted by the German Naval Command in which U-Boat Captain Conrad Veidt is to make his way to Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands where the British fleet is anchored. Veidt puts ashore where he makes contact with a pair of British traitors, a cashiered captain Sebastian Shaw and a newly assigned schoolteacher in the region Valerie Hobson. When the fleet sails she will give Veidt instructions how to avoid the mine fields come in and do a Pearl Harbor on the fleet.Veidt is a most honorable sort, he wears a coat over his naval uniform as he does not wish to be shot as a spy. Of course when cornered he does ditch the uniform for another garb, the better to continue his activities as The Spy In Black. All however is not as it seems and history tells us such an event did not happen in World War I.Veidt, Hobson, and Shaw really care this film with their performances. Down in the cast one that stands out is Cyril Raymond as a nosy country parson who gets too curious for his own good.This film is a rarity in that Germans are not shown as intrinsically evil. That would change on both sides of the pond shortly.

I could just as easily have summarized this review as Minority Report as it's a certain twelve-to-seven I'll be outnumbered by those lining up to genuflect at ANYTHING bearing the name Michael Powell and if I had a piece of the saliva concession I'd be one happy bunny. I am, of course, equally prone to anticipate new work by favourite directors but also, I hope, sufficiently objective to record when they disappoint; a great admirer of Diane Kurys I was there when L'Anniversaire opened a couple of years back and I really needn't have bothered; Nicole Garcia makes, as a rule, fine movies but Selon Charlie was ho-hum at best; Marion Vernoux made an exquisite film in Rien a faire so I was there on the first day when her latest, A Boire opened: least said ... On the other hand I've never really understood the fuss about Michael Powell, competent, sure, entertaining, on the whole, but DEIFICATION? Gimme a break. It lost me from Frame #1 when having been informed we are in Kiel in the middle of World War I the first thing we see is a newspaper Banner Headline in English which is compounded by people in a hotel, whom it is reasonable to assume are largely German, speaking not only English but using English idiomatic speech. The plot is set in motion when U-boat commander Conrad Veidt is given a mission to infiltrate English security in the Orkneys, a cue for us to cut to that locale. The next sequence is almost beyond parody. A young girl is leaving an inn to take up a post as a schoolteacher on a small island; for the sake of exposition she is obliged to explain this to the landlady who is seeing her off and throw in the additional information that she has obtained both a passport and a Visa. At this juncture an elderly matron turns up in a chauffeur driven car and asks for a room. For no reason other than to move the plot forward she is immediately put in the picture about the schoolteacher which prompts her to offer to drive her to the ferry. En route - and in a time of War and ultra high security - the girl not only reveals that she has a passport but actually PRODUCES it, whereby she is chloroformed by the elderly party so that substitute, in the shape of Valerie Hobson, may take her place. In the fullness of one reel Hobson is installed in the schoolteacher's cottage and has rendez-voused with Veidt; the plan is for a team of U-boats to assemble and sink half the British fleet at Scapa Flow with the help of a disgruntled Royal Navy Officer. Of course what transpires is the equivalent of 'it was all a dream'; the disgruntled Navy type, Sebastian Shaw is really a counter-spy as is Hobson and THEIR plan is to lure as many U-boats as possible into the area then drop a few dozen depth-charges where they will do the most good.It's not ALL bad, of course. Only about two thirds of it.

During the World War, a German U-boat comes up on the coast of Scotland. At this point Captain Hardt leaves the vessel and travels to a small village to meet his contact. He plans to use the treacherous assistance of bitter Royal Navy Lieutenant Ashington to guide the Germans to the spot of the British fleet. However not all is fair in love and war and Hardt soon finds his operation at risk of compromise.Of course, much more famous for The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death, this film from Powell and Pressburger should not be over looked. While it is of course propaganda (released as it was in 1939), it is not a flag waving, lets all kill the Nazi's under the bed style film. Instead it stands up in it's own right as an exciting little thriller that makes some good points about the nature of war. The plot is quite straightforward at first but has a few nice twists that I won't spoil, and is generally enjoyable.The strength of the film for me was the focus on a German Officer and not having him as a stereotypical evil tyrant. While the film doesn't let us wonder who the good guys and the bad guys are, it does at least allow Hardt to be more of a full person and the film better as a result. The ironies of the final action of the film is clear and is even more of a striking comment on war when you look at the `blue on blue' stats for Gulf War 2. Veidt does well in the lead as Hardt and is partly responsible for keeping him a bad guy without over egging the cake. Shaw and Hobson are good but perhaps a little too much of the `Heroic Brits' about them.Overall this is a good wartime thriller but the unusual tack that it comes at, plus a darker and slightly subversive tone about it helps it stand out, if not from the rest of P&P's work, then certainly from the vast majority of wartime propaganda thrillers made in Britain around the second world war.

Just wanted to second the other user's comment.I saw this last night as part of a Michael Powell/Emeric Pressberger retrospective underway at the American Cinemetheque. There are some unlikely aspects to the plot, but on the whole this is well crafted WWI thriller with a remarkable level of moral complexity, especially given that it was made and released just as England was entering a second war against Germany.The protagonist (hero?) (played by the extraordinary Conrad Veidt) is a German officer on a spy mission and he is, in many respects, a quite admirable character. For the first half of the film, it's almost entirely from his point of view. It's hard to imagine Hollywood filmmakers EVER having the confidence that Powell and Pressberger clearly had in the intelligence of their audience, allowing them to actually like and admire an enemy agent.While "The Spy in Black" eventually does come down squarely on the side of the English, the agents of the Kaiser come off only as perhaps a hair more ruthless than those fighting for king and country.Of course, the Germany that England would be fighting within a few a few months would be far, far worse. This film is a potent reminder that while World War II might have a morally clear "good" war because of the vast evil of the Nazis, World War I was a horse of a far grayer color.With sophisticated, occasionally black humor, this is a neat bit of old-fashioned movie entertainment with some genuinely intriguing differences. Enthusaistically recommended.