Monday, January 21, 2019

British Intelligence (1940)

A spy is betraying British military secrets to the Germans during the First World War. The top British agent Frank Bennett (Bruce Lester) is sent to capture the German spy Strendler but is betrayed and ends up hospitalised. He is nursed back to health by a pretty nurse Helene (Margaret Lindsay)... who is in fact another top German spy!

Now using the identity of a refugee known as "Frances Hautry" she is sent to London to infiltrate the home of Bennett's father Arthur (Holmes Herbert), a cabinet minister. The butler Valdar (Boris Karloff) turns out to be another German spy!

The head of British intelligence Yeats (Leonard Mudie) already suspects Helene... and Valdar turns out to be a double agent. But Frank Bennett turns up at his family home and recognises his ex-nurse things get even more complicated... especially when Valdar tells Helene that he is Strendler!

Although sometimes thinly veiled propaganda this is an exciting war and espionage film. The plot is sometimes confusing when you wonder exactly which side some of the characters are on. The film ends with a zeppelin raid, any film with zeppelins is great!