Information
- BFI identifier46627
- Date1939 (Release)
- Production countryUnited Kingdom
- Production company
- SynopsisU Boat espionage drama set in the Orkneys in the First World War. (Synopsis)
- Genre
- Subject
- CreditsDirected by: Michael Powell
Production Company: Harefield Productions
Presented by: Alexander Korda
view all - CastConrad Veidt (Captain Hardt)
Sebastian Shaw (Lieutenant Ashington)
Valerie Hobson (the school mistress)
view full cast
Title
The Spy in Black (Original)
U-boat Twenty-nine (Alternative)
U-boat 29 (Alternative)
EIDR identifier
10.5240/19BC-2282-DF50-6617-9791-YCategory
FictionThis work is included in the BFI Filmography.
- Collections
- Film / Video
35mm BW Positive - Safety - Combined - Viewing
Digital Betacam - Video - Viewing
Digital Betacam - Video - Viewing
Digital Audio Tape - Video - Viewing
view all - Scripts / DocumentsScript - Original story: Clouston,J.Storer - SCR-1034
Ephemera: publicity - PBS-46627
Ephemera: publicity - PBM-46627
Spy In Black - Espionage drama set in the Orkneys during the First World War. Conrad Veidt plays the captain of a German submarine [U-Boat 29] sent to the Orkney Isles to meet a fellow spy, with the mission of sinking the British fleet. The Spy in Black brought Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger together for the first time. A masterfull thriller with depth and flair which elevated it far above the 'quota quickie' of the time. Powell's technical mastery creates real thrills, while Pressburger's script adds form and flavour, painting the Germans in light and shade (brave for a film released three weeks before the invasion of Poland). Director: Michael Powell; excutive producer: Alexander Korda; producer: Irving Asher; screenplay: Emeric Pressburger, Roland Pertwee based on a story by J. Storer Clouston; photography: Bernard Browne; art direction: Fred Pusey, Vincent Korda cast: Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Sebastian Shaw, Marius Goring [At the first script meeting Powell declared the draft completely unworkable. Korda introduced him to Emeric Pressburger for re-writes. Pressburger made radical changes creating new characters, changing plot. 'I had always dreamed of this phenomenon' Powell later wrote 'a screenwriter with the heart and mind of a novelist'. The film was well received with the Monthly Film Bulletin commenting 'Conrad Veidt is brilliant in the lead. He is throughout a tragic if slightly sinister figure, and wins respect and sympathy as a patriot with the qualities most admirable and admired in soldier, sailor or airman of any nationality'] SEE ALSO MLP-1-4-1-1 Miscellaneous Scrapbook 'A' for a large amount of cuttings on the film including location publicity and reviews] - MLP-1-1-44
Script - Treatment by Emeric Pressburger, Script by Roland Pertwee dated 20 October 1938. - S6804
Medium and small pressbooks held.
view all - Posters / DesignsDesign: advertising - UK Trade Press Advertisement (Double Page) in Kinematograph Weekly dated 30 March 1939 commissioned by Columbia Pictures. - SPD-9782299
Design: advertising - USA Trade Press Advertisement (Double Page) commissioned by Columbia Pictures. - SPD-9782329
view all - Stillsbfi-00m-g6t
Photograph: print - Landscape - Black and White - bfi-00n-9yv
Photograph: print - Landscape - Black and White - bfi-00n-9yu
Photograph: print - Landscape - Black and White - bfi-00n-9yt
Photograph: print - Landscape - Black and White - bfi-00n-9ys
view all - Articles
- Books
- +The Spy in Black
Work - 46627 - 1939 (Release)
United Kingdom - Film - Fiction
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