CinemaSerf

This is quite an exciting tale of WWI espionage with Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt caught up in a clever web of international intrigues in Sweden. Leig is "Madeleine", a Stockholm couturier who wants to help her native France during the Great War - so she helps smuggle information to London hidden, ingeniously, amongst her fashions. Her British handler asks her to keep an eye of newly arrived German "deserter" Veidt ("Karl") who is secretly there to identify and break their clever network. They both know the danger each face from the other and despite the dangerous cat and mouse game they are engaged in, they start to form an attraction that leads to conflict and danger! There is a smouldering chemistry between the two stars here; Leigh is much less flighty than in some of her later performances, and Veidt always did play the baddie well. Victor Saville keeps the mood dark and intriguing as we build towards quite an exciting denouement at sea with Cecil Parker, and a mini-sea battle.