The Spy in Black [U-Boat 29] ***** (1939, Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Hay Petrie, Helen Haye, Sebastian Shaw, Marius Goring, Cyril Raymond, Mary Morris, June Duprez) – Classic Film Review 619

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were first brought together by producer Alexander Korda to make the vivacious 1939 World War One spy thriller The Spy in Black starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson. 

British film-makers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger first worked together on the bright, vivacious and fascinating 1939 World War One espionage thriller The Spy in Black [U-Boat 29], mostly set in the Orkney Islands. Powell’s the director and Pressburger is the co-screenwriter.

A commanding Conrad Veidt stars as World War One German U-boat naval skipper Captain Hardt. The film begins on Saturday 17 March 1917. Hardt is trying to contact the local German espionage agent in the Orkneys while he’s been sent on a spying mission to the North of Scotland. Veidt soon meets his match in the feisty Valerie Hobson as the local schoolmistress, Jill Blacklock, who turns out also to be the agent, his contact.

Veidt and Hobson make a brilliant star team and director Powell is on fine form too. What’s surprising in 1939 is how warmly and sympathetically the German submarine commander is portrayed. He’s an enemy but he is honourable throughout.

The highly diverting spy plot holds the attention like a vice, thanks to Pressburger and Roland Pertwee’s sharp, witty and edgy screenplay based on the novel by Joseph Storer Clouston. And Powell ensures that there’s plenty of visual appeal too in cinematographer Bernard Browne’s striking images.

Marius Goring and Torin Thatcher play German submarine officers, and Grant Sutherland, a minister in Powell’s The Edge of the World (1937), plays a Scottish air raid warden.

It also stars Hay Petrie, Helen Haye, Sebastian Shaw, Marius Goring, Cyril Raymond, Mary Morris and June Duprez.

Also in the cast are Athol Stewart, Agnes Loughlin, George Summers, Grant Sutherland, Robert Rendel, Margaret Moffatt, Kenneth Warrington, Torin Thatcher, Esma Cannon, Skelton Knaggs, Jack Lambert, Bernard Miles, Johnnie Schofield and Diana Sinclair-Hall.

The Spy in Black runs 82 minutes.

In real life there was a U29 in the German Navy during World War One. It was sunk in the Pentland Firth in 1915, by being rammed by HMS Dreadnought. In the film it’s the St Ola 1 that is sunk by U29, but in real life the St Ola 1 served the route Thurso to Stromness between 1892 and 1951.

Powell, Pressburger and the two stars reunited for Contraband [Blackout] the following year (1940).

Powell and Pressburger were brought together by producer Alexander Korda to film Clouston’s 1917 novel, and eventually made over 20 films together.

It was shot at Denham Studios, at Northchurch Common in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire and in Orkney, Scotland. It finished shooting on 24 December 1938 and was released in the UK on 7 August 1939, shortly before Britain went to war with Germany. Its US premiere as U-Boat 29 was on 5 October 1939 in New York City, followed by release two days later.

The cast are Conrad Veidt as Captain Hardt, Sebastian Shaw as Lt. Ashington/ Cmdr. David Blacklock, Valerie Hobson as Fräulein Tiel schoolmistress/ Jill Blacklock, Esma Cannon as Maggie, Marius Goring as Lt. Felix Schuster, June Duprez as Miss Anne Burnett, Athole Stewart as the Rev Hector Matthews, Agnes Lauchlan as Mrs. Matthews, Helen Haye as Mrs. Sedley, Cyril Raymond as the Rev John Harris, George Summers as ferry captain Capt. Walter Ratter, Hay Petrie as ferry engineer James, Grant Sutherland as Bob Bratt, Robert Rendel as Admiral, Mary Morris as chauffeuse Edwards, Margaret Moffatt as Kate. Kenneth Warrington as Cmdr. Denis, Torin Thatcher as Submarine officer, Bernard Miles as hotel receptionist Hans, Graham Stark as bellboy, and Skelton Knaggs as German sailor.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 619

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