CinemaSerf

Now you've got to keep an eye on the plot in this little espionage/counter espionage thriller as Robert Donat is a Brit sent to spy on the Bolsheviks and gets caught up in all sorts of shenanigans that lands him in Siberia until 1917 when, amidst all the chaos he alights upon the beautiful "Countess" (Marlene Dietrich) and both have to try and get the hell out of a rapidly imploding Russia. The two stars gel quite well, once they start sharing scenes together and although the story follows a pretty well trodden path, the two , together with a few familiar faces from British cinema (John Clements, Irene Vanbrugh and a rather good, drunken, Miles Malleson) manage to keep this slightly over-long escape story going. Harry Stradling's photography re-creates well the coldness of the Russian climate (from Buckinghamshire!) and the eeriness and devastation of a messy, brutal revolution and Lajos Biró's adaptation of the novel keeps pretty much to the plot.