Conrad Veidt and Vivian Leigh play spies for Germany and Britain respectively during WWI. Eventually, the two meet and fall in love--a serious problem since they are on opposite sides and SHOULD try to kill each other! The film poses the question of what to do in such a situation--obey your heart or your patriotism.
This film features one of the oddest romantic pairings I can think of off the top of my head. While I love Conrad Veidt and think he's a seriously under-appreciated actor, I just couldn't get over the idea of him having a romance with a young Vivian Leigh. He was older and perhaps too sophisticated---all I know is that I couldn't easily believe this combination. In addition, I am not a huge fan of this sort of film. While it was made pretty well, it just didn't engage me. This is not to say you won't like it--just don't believe anyone who would give this very run of the mill film a 10. The action, acting and direction were all fine--just not all that distinguished and I feel that the film is best described as a decent time-passer.
Dark Journey
1937
Action / Adventure / Romance / Thriller / War
Dark Journey
1937
Action / Adventure / Romance / Thriller / War
Plot summary
Madeline Goddard is a smart young woman who owns a fashionable dress shop in neutral Sweden during World War One. Though she is grateful to avoid the fighting, the courageous and stunningly pretty Madeline feels she should be doing more for her native France. She volunteers to work as an intelligence agent, smuggling maps and other documents within the fashionable garments she ships to wealthy customers in London. Madeline's activities are so successful that British intelligence soon comes to rely on her as their main pipeline for information. At about this time, a British official in Sweden asks her to cultivate the friendship of Baron Karl Von Marwitz, a tall, distinguished-looking German officer who is in charge of counter-espionage activities at the German embassy. Unknown to Madeline, the baron has been sent to Sweden for the express purpose of discovering and eliminating the top British spy who has been smuggling out German war plans. When Madeline and Karl meet, each recognizes the other as a deadly foe. But a smoldering attraction seems to grow each time they see each other. Madeline is dazed by her conflicting feelings and attempts to run away; however Von Marwitz is able to board her ship on the high seas and capture her as a spy. Soon afterwards, his own ship is torpedoed by a British destroyer sent to rescue Madeline. The mortally wounded Baron Von Marwitz dies in her arms, confessing his love. Madeline is hailed as a hero but turns to look out to sea, shedding tears over her gallant German lover.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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It's okay...
don't like the romance
It's spring time 1918. A passenger ship is stopped by a German U-boat. They start rounding up non-neutral citizens as spies. Madeleine Goddard (Vivien Leigh) avoids being taken and travels to her Stockholm dress shop. She's actually a German spy delivering allied troop movements with her dresses. Former German soldier Baron Karl Von Marwitz (Conrad Veidt) arrives in Sweden. He's seen as a deserter by other soldiers.
I don't buy the romance but I'm more than happy to buy the spy vs spy. Veidt does not look like a romantic lead but he does look like an espionage villain. I like the switcheroo. I just can't buy the romance. I do not ship them.
Haunting Vivien, Murky Film
Vivien Leigh is even better in this film than she was in GONE WITH THE WIND. She has a fragile, hunted beauty which works perfectly for her role as the unwilling spy forced into romantic entanglements and deceptions. The story is murky, but that doesn't really matter. Watch the sequence where Vivien has been marched aboard ship and locked into her stateroom for deportment as an unwanted spy. Using just her eyes and her expression, Vivien does an entire scene of tossing in her sleep, going to the porthole, and lying back down to sleep again, showing every emotion from fear, suspicion, and doubt to acceptance of her own guilt. Then there's an explosion and she sits bolt upright, looking as fragile and unspeakably lovely as a hunted deer. This is a movie where the sheer radiance of the lead actress makes everything else seem dull by comparison.