"The Spy in Black" is often regarded as the first "Archers" film, although it was not actually described as such; Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger did not start to describe themselves as "The Archers" until "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing" from 1942. It was, however, the first film on which they worked together, with Powell being credited as the director and Pressburger as one of the scriptwriters. (In most of their later films, Powell and Pressburger were to share a joint writer- producer-director credit).
Most of The Archers' early collaborations were wartime propaganda films, and "The Spy in Black" can also be regarded as such, even though it was made before the outbreak of war. (It actually opened in August 1939, a few days before the German invasion of Poland). The previous year Alfred Hitchcock had been forced to set another spy thriller, "The Lady Vanishes", in a fictitious fascist dictatorship, although it was clearly aimed at Nazi Germany. By 1939, however, it was widely recognised that war was imminent, and that there was no longer any point in British filmmakers trying to pretend that Germany was not a hostile power. "The Spy in Black" is therefore a World War I spy thriller, doubtless made with the agenda of preparing the British people for the coming conflict and reminding them that they would soon need to be on guard against German spies.
The action takes place in the Orkney Islands, a remote part of Britain but one which took on great significance in both world wars because Scapa Flow, the body of water lying between the main islands, is one of the great natural harbours of the world and served as a British naval base. (A later "Archers" film, "I Know Where I'm Going!", was also set in a remote part of Scotland, a country which Michael Powell loved). The story is set in 1917, a time when Germany was being brought close to starvation by a British naval blockade. There are numerous references in the script to the hardship which this was causing in Germany, another piece of disguised propaganda to reassure the British people that British sea power had won the First World War (partially true) and that it would win any Second World War (a prediction which was to be proved wrong by events).
After the Battle of Jutland, the German surface fleet did not dare to leave port, so Captain Hardt a German submarine commander, is ordered to lead an attack on the British Fleet. He puts ashore on the islands to make contact with a German spy, Fraulein Tiel, who is posing as the local schoolmistress. Tiel introduces him to Lieutenant Ashington, a disgraced British naval officer, who is offering to betray his country for money and to reveal vital secrets about British ship movements. There are, however, to be further developments, which leave Hardt wondering whether Tiel and Ashington are really what they claim to be.
The film is in many ways similar to an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, although the Hitchcock film with which it has most in common is not one of his British spy thrillers from the thirties, like "The 39 Steps" or "The Lady Vanishes", but rather with "Notorious", which was not to be made until 1946. Both Hardt and Ashington fall in love with the beautiful young Fraulein Tiel, leading to a love-triangle reminiscent of that between the characters played by Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains in the later film. There are two particularly fine performances from the lovely Valerie Hobson and Conrad Veidt, later to become famous for his role in "Casablanca". Although Hardt is German, he is really the central character in the film, playing a more prominent role than any of the British characters, and is many ways a sympathetic one, being played as an honourable officer and gentleman rather than a villainous thug, which is how German officers were generally portrayed in British propaganda. This sort of characterisation, however, was to become typical of Pressburger's writing; even in films written after war had broken out he never lost sight of the fact that the enemy were human, and most of his wartime films include at least one "good German" such as Theo in "Colonel Blimp".
The film contains one glaring plot hole at the end when the U-Boat surfaces to try and sink the Orkney Islands ferry; would a submarine on a vital secret mission really have given itself away in order to sink so insignificant a target, especially in an area where British warships are known to be operating? This, however, would really be my only complaint. "The Spy in Black" may have been made as a "quota quickie", films made quickly and cheaply to fulfill a government requirement that British cinemas show a minimum number of British films, but it is an exciting, well-made thriller which asks some pertinent questions about patriotism, loyalty and the moral dilemmas of war. For a "quickie" there is also some very attractive photography of the Orkney coastal scenery, shot on location. I would not rate this film quite as highly as the Archers' great war films like "49th Parallel", "Colonel Blimp" and "A Matter of Life and Death", but it certainly points the way towards them. 7/10
