Synopsis:
‘When a German U-Boat captain is sent on a spying mission to the North of Scotland during World War One, he finds more than he bargained for in his contact, the local schoolmistress.’
– Ian Harries

‘For his first project at Alexander Korda’s London Films, Michael Powell was introduced to young Hungarian screenwriter Emeric Pressburger for this World War I drama. The pairing was a propitious one – The Spy in Black was a hit both here and in the US (under the name U-Boat 29), and one of the most successful partnerships in British cinema was born.
Released on the eve of World War II in August 1939, The Spy in Black makes an interesting contrast with the later 49th Parallel (1941), made as an unambiguous propaganda film. Although both feature a U-boat commander as a villain, Captain Hardt (Conrad Veidt) is a very different character to his counterpart in 49th Parallel, Lieut. Hirth (Eric Portman). The film goes to some lengths to humanise him in the early part of the film, showing his easy friendship with his colleague Schuster (Marius Goring), and he is altogether a more honourable German.
Filmed in the Orkneys, The Spy in Black marked Powell’s second visit to the Scottish islands, following his breakthrough film Edge of the World (1937). He was already completely in love with their bleak beauty, and he was back again a few years later to film “I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945).
By now, Powell was almost a veteran – Spy was his twenty-sixth film as director – but this was his first major project, and the light touch and confidence he displayed is surprising. Notably, the minor characters are rounded, believable and treated with respect, quite different from the crude caricatures common in British films of the period, and a step forward from the more stereotyped Welsh villagers in Powell’s earlier The Phantom Light (1935).
In one particularly impressive sequence, in which Hardt makes his way past patrolling guards to establish contact with the ‘schoolmistress’ who he believes to be his ally, Powell showed a rare ability to blend humour and suspense, a gift most commonly associated with Hitchcock, whose position as undisputed master of British cinema was now vacant following his departure for Hollywood.
The starstruck Powell and Pressburger were thrilled to be working with a hero of the German cinema, Conrad Veidt, star of the expressionist classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Das Cabinett des Dr Caligari, Germany, d. Robert Weine, 1919). A strong cast also included Valerie Hobson, June Duprez and Marius Goring; all would work with Powell again.’
– Mark Duguid

The.Spy.in.Black (1939).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 18mn
Size: 	1.23 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1440x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	2 151 Kbps
BPP: 	0.055
Audio
#1:  	2.0ch AAC LC @ 94 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/AB4FF91642EA8BA/The.Spy.in.Black_(1939).mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

thanks to @Vincent for this copy

The post Michael Powell – The Spy in Black (1939) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

It is the Second World War. The Nazis have invaded Britain. There is a split between the resistance and those who prefer to collaborate with the invaders for a quiet life. The protagonist, a nurse, is caught in the middle.

British film historian Kevin Brownlow was all of 18 when he conceived the idea for this alternate-history film depicting what life in London would have been like if Nazi troops had conquered England in July 1940. Along with his friend and collaborator Andrew Mollo (only 16 at the time), he took eight years to piece the film together using borrowed equipment and begging scraps of film stock from established filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick. The result owes much to Brownlow’s penchant for silent films (he authored a classic text on the subject entitled The Parade’s Gone By), and possibly to Italian neorealism, since the semidocumentary style bows in that direction. Good thing, too. The documentary feel captivates the viewer. The story follows an Everybrit named Pauline as she grows from complacence and resignation over the Nazi occupation of England to when she becomes a nurse for the Nazis and realizes the true horror of her and England’s situation. Brownlow’s pure desire for authenticity makes the film more chilling than it would otherwise have been. For instance, on the film’s initial release, Jewish groups objected to a sequence involving a real-life fascist of the time, Colin Jordan, spouting his opinion of Jews and euthanasia. They feared people wouldn’t pick up on the film’s anti-Nazi stance, and would therefore take the comments seriously. So seven minutes of footage were cut that have now been restored, making the film scarier than ever

699MB | 01:36:25 | 608×464 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/9C7F0CCB3DA22F5/It_Happened_Here_(1966).avi

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Kevin Brownlow – It Happened Here (1966) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Very interesting cast in this 1936 British film that predates A DOUBLE LIFE by nearly a decade.

Miriam Hopkins plays a secretary who alters a scathing review of an actor in OTHELLO at his wife’s (Gertrude Lawrence) behest. The wife turns out to be correct and the actor (Sebastian Shaw) goes on to become the rage of London’s West End.

Hopkins then becomes obsessed with the actor and starts going to all the performances of the play. Shaw then become smitten with Hopkins and we get a parallel story of jealousy and rage finally played out on the stage as Shaw’s Othello tries to kill Lawrence’s Desdemona. All very intriguing and very well played with bits of humor here and there.

Hopkins is, as always, eminently watchable. She was a great actress whose reputation has rather dimmed with the passing decades, but in the 30s she ranked with the top star actresses and was equally at home in drama or comedy. Lawrence is interesting to see in a good role. Not a traditional beauty, but she was a major stage star in her day and she’s very good in this film. Shaw is rather bland but does OK with the Shakespearean scenes.

Rex Harrision plays a gawky suitor after Hopkins. A.E. Matthews is very good as the theatre critic. Sybil Grove plays the painter in the park, Laura Smithson is funny as the acid maid, and Val Gielgud (brother to John Gielgud) plays the producer.

But Hopkins is the star. One wonders how she came to star in this British film for Alexander Korda since her Hollywood career was still going strong.

— IMDb

1.10GB | 1h 19mn | 704×578 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/314DEE387B4ACEF/Men_Are_Not_Gods.1936.TVrip.x264-CG.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Walter Reisch – Men Are Not Gods (1936) first appeared on Cinema of the World.