Rent Dark Journey (1937)
3.4 of 5 from 52 ratings
1h 19min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt star in this dashing spy thriller set in Sweden during the First World War. Spring 1918. The supposedly neutral country of Sweden has been heavily infiltrated by spies from France, Britain and Germany. In Stockholm, high society is alive with intrigue, espionage and murder. No one is who - or what - they claim to be. Madeleine Goddard runs an elite fashion boutique - a job that often takes her to Paris. She is also a high-ranking German spy. Vying for her affections are an English secret agent and the charming aristocratic German deserter Baron von Marwitz. When her spy cell appears to have been compromised, Madeleine is sent to Paris to discover the fate of other agents. As her affair with von Marwitz deepens, she must decide which is more important to her ....love or duty. - Actors:
- Conrad Veidt, Vivien Leigh, Joan Gardner, Anthony Bushell, Ursula Jeans, Margery Pickard, Eliot Makeham, Austin Trevor, Sam Livesey, Edmund Willard, Charles Carson, Philip Ray, Henry Oscar, Lawrence Hanray, Cecil Parker, Reginald Tate, Percy Walsh, Robert Newton, William Dewhurst, Laidman Browne
- Directors:
- Victor Saville
- Writers:
- Lajos Biró, Arthur Wimperis
- Studio:
- DD Home Entertainment
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Thrillers
- Collections:
- Getting to Know..., Introducing a British Film Family, Top 10 British War Films (1939-45), Top Films
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Reviews (1) of Dark Journey
Northern Romance. - Dark Journey review by Steve
Espionage romance set in World War I and released shortly before conflict resumed in 1939. So the Germans are still the enemy, but there isn't yet much propaganda. It's a slow, slightly creaky melodrama but full of atmosphere and uncertainty and suspense. And Victor Saville directs with a little style.
Vivien Leigh is a French spy in neutral Sweden with a front as a dress shop owner which conveniently takes her into Paris to liaise between the underground and the British. Conrad Veidt is the head of German intelligence who is trying to shut down her network by any means.
Naturally, they fall in love. Veidt isn't much of a romantic lead, but can play mysterious German spies all day long. The role of the Stockholm based secret agent would have been ideal for Garbo. Still, Viv is enigmatic and glamorous enough while giving her most accomplished performance prior to arrival in Hollywood.
And she is photographed beautifully... But will they betray their homelands for love? Veidt would more or less repeat the denouement at sea two years later in The Spy in Black. Back in the golden age this was conventional genre material. But now it feels wonderfully exotic. A crackly relic of a time when cinema knew how to do romantic intrigue.
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