Conrad Veidt and Vivien Leigh in the well-directed "Dark Journey" from Saville - which has some plot confusion but it's interesting to see Leigh before "Gone With the Wind" and "Waterloo Bridge". Veidt outplays her at every turn, but the ending is anti-climatic and rather confusing.
This film was made after Hitler came to power, but it's yet another British film made during the 1930s about Germany and WW1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DXe144bxpo
1939: Emeric Pressburger writing the screenplay and Michael Powell directing the espionage thriller "The Spy in Black". Some famous names in the credits also include Vincent Korda and Miklos Rozsa. The film stars Conrad Veidt alongside a somewhat wooden Valerie Hobson. What stands out in "The Spy in Black" is its general directorial assurance, but there is a flaw. As is typical with this genre of films, information often becomes confusing, defying audience suspension of disbelief. This is the case with the film's opening which leaves audiences bewildered - even more so when it's explained away towards the end!! This film could have been more coherent with regard to plot and characterization. Some things are just too convenient. Even Hitchcock was guilty of this; think of the improbable circus scene in "Saboteur" from 1942!! Once again, though, an excellent role for Conrad Veidt as the untrustworthy German submarine captain, but the role of Marius Goring as his friend at the beginning of the film is as cryptic as it is easily forgotten in the rest of the picture. It left me scratching my head; one German, one Englishman - and a cultured Englishman at that. We cannot suspend disbelief to the level of accepting Goring as a German U-boat officer!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZTtNLctjlA
If you put aside those inconsistencies I've mentioned, "The Spy in Black" is a gripping film with a first rate actor in Veidt. Some of the cinematography is influenced by German Expressionism, as is its star.
