Brilliant !! (possible spoilers)
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Spy in Black
sophisticatedbeggar — 12 years ago(February 02, 2014 04:14 AM)
Such a brilliant little film fast paced, suspenseful, with beautiful, witty dialogue, characters that are real and that demonstrate determination to fight at all costs (not unlike in that other favorite, I know where Im going). Also, I was certainly not expecting to shed (yet again) tears in a Powell / Pressburger movie (the first scenes in A Matter of Life and Death have me reaching for the Kleenex). It left me wondering how this team could create low budget as well as large scale movies without compromising the quality one bit.
As a side note, Veidt gives so understated a performance as Captain Hardt and its a pity that he didnt get to play more characters as this one, simple, down to earth, caring (as shown in his interactions with his crew), decent human beings instead of all those monocled, soft spoken, aloof aristocrats that a modern viewer cant really care for. And from a girls point of view what a handsome man he was in his uniform -
Steve Crook — 12 years ago(February 02, 2014 08:29 AM)
Check out
Contraband
(1940)
(aka
Blackout
) made the following year with the same two leads and made by the same team.
The Spy in Black
(1939)
was the film that brought Powell & Pressburger together. They went on to make an astounding collection of films in different genres and styles over the next 15 or so years.
Steve -
sophisticatedbeggar — 12 years ago(February 02, 2014 11:52 AM)
Thank you for the reply. Yes I will check out 'Contraband', although from what I've read it's a lesser film but still I believe that it will have its own merits I am familiar with the most well known works of Powell and Pressburger but to be honest I didn't expect to enjoy "The spy in black" as much as I did as unlike other female viewers I'm not particularly keen on Conrad Veidt and his monocle so for me he was a revelation here
Their films even the small ones have such a quality that is entirely their own and are so distinctive
You've got a beautiful site by the way, keep up the good work -
Steve Crook — 12 years ago(February 02, 2014 12:39 PM)
In
Contraband
Conrad plays a much more heroic romantic character. It is almost Hitchcockian in some ways. In many ways I think that it's a contender for the title of the sexiest film of the 1940s. See
http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/40_Contraband/Contraband07.h tml
Steve