Tonight's war movie fell once again into the espionage subgenre, and as a matter of fact so does it's co-feature. I actually chose "The Yellow Canary"(1943) because it came up as a recommendation after last night's "The Two-Headed Spy"; both had the same screenwriter, a gentleman named Miles Malleson. In "Canary", Anna Neagle stars as "Sally Maitland" a young woman scorned by her upper middle-class English family during WW2 because of her apparent sympathy toward Nazi Germany. Her attitude stems from having lived in Deutchland before the war and experiencing it's rise from the ashes after Hitler took power. At the dinner table, her views are roundly condemned. She's seen as unpatriotic (and worse), especially in a family where everyone is serving the war effort, including her younger sister Bette, who's joined the Royal Navy.
Sally tries going out on the town with her boyfriend, but is shunned at a local club where the patrons talk behind her back. Ultimately, she feels like a pariah in London, so she boards a ship headed for Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she plans to live in exile. Though it isn't explained at first why she chooses that city, you'll later find out.
During the voyage, she strikes up a conversation with a Polish man, Jan Orlock, who hates the Nazis with a passion, as his Warsaw home was bombed by the Lufwaffe, leaving his mother blind and crippled. She's moved to Halifax and he's on his way there to reunite with her. While at sea, he falls in love with Sally despite her pro-German views, which are never vociferously expressed in any event. He has some competition, however, from a second gentleman, one "Lieutenant James Garrick" (Richard Greene), a handsome chap wearing a smart Navy uniform. Garrick also chats Sally up, drawing the ire of Orlock, who does some snooping around and finds out that Garrick is with British Naval Intelligence.
Hmmmm.......why is he asking Sally so many personal questions, Orlock wonders. Does it have anything to do with her political views? Is Garrick in fact spying on her? We'll learn the answer to this eventually, but many more questions will present themselves as the plot opens up when we disembark at Halifax. I have to cut in here to ask if you've ever heard of the Halifax Explosion of 1917. I had not, nor was I aware that the city was a major military port during WW1, when the explosion took place. You can Google it for more details, but it figures into the film, and when it occurred it was the largest man-made explosion in history.
"The Yellow Canary" is a little confusing to begin with, in part - at least in my opinion - because it was not adapted for American audiences. It's an entirely Brrrittish production, and Veddy Much So at that, and I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but the Brits speak rapidly, and in movies made for UK audiences, the characters use a syntax that includes slang and colloquialisms that we in the US aren't familiar with. When you combine the speed of their speech with the unfamiliar phrasing, it's sometimes hard to understand a plot reference (at least for me), and so I had to hit "pause" and "rewind" a few times to sort out what I was hearing. However, this is a terrific movie with excellent twists, and just when you think it's getting too complicated to understand, all the knots will come untied and every last detail will be explained. Man, what a finish! I give it Two Big Thumbs Up, you won't find a better spy movie anywhere, and the print is good too.
Now, hang on a sec, because.......did I just say "you won't find a better spy movie anywhere" ? Well you may not, but I've got one just as good, with the script once again written by the aforementioned Miles Malleson. It's called "The Two-Headed Spy"(1958), a riveting thriller starring British actor Jack Hawkins as "General Alex Schottland", an Anglo-German Nazi who long ago renounced his half-English heritage to fight for the Fatherland in World War One. By the time of the Third Reich, he has risen to become a member of Hitler's General Staff. Schottland oversees the Wehrmacht's supply lines, and has done such a good job of keeping the war machine well oiled that he's become one of Der Fuhrer's most favored advisors.
What Adolf doesn't know is that he's a spy, actually loyal to England, and that he's been working with a contact to get messages back to London, with up-to-date information on German military plans and positions. His go-to is a little old antique dealer in Berlin (pronun.), whose connections to British Intelligence are well hidden.
Things run smoothly for General Shottland until he is assigned an assistant, a young captain who comes from the Gestapo. As a former member of the secret police, he is naturally suspicious of Schottland's half-English parentage, and tries several times to trip him up in conversation, to get him to reveal his true loyalties. But Schottland is so skilled in diversion that he turns all suspicions back on the heads of his accusers. As a confidant of Hitler himself, he reports these detractors as "defeatists", a sure death sentence for them. It is only because he has the ear of Mueller, the Gestapo chief, that the captain is able to escape such a fate. He will continue to try and spring traps for Gen. Schottland, however, and throughout the movie this will provide the tension in the plot. There is also a romantic interest played by the beautiful Gia Scala, as a nightclub singer who is possibly involved in the intrigue.
What's really noteworthy about this gripping film is that it was based on a book by a real life British spy named A.P. Scotland. As you can see, his last name was Germanised for the name of the lead character. He's supposed to be "General Schottland", so while you're watching you're going "OMG! Was there really an English spy in Hitler's cabinet"? I won't give any secrets away, and even if you read about A.P. Scotland it's hard to determine the truth, but in the movie "General Schottland" is portrayed as being in The Bunker right after Hitler's suicide, and if that's true it's a mindblower. The thing is, the Brits are the best at the spy game, they've always been acknowledged as such, and they play their cards so close to the vest and throw so much mud into the water that we'll probably never know the whole truth about the things they've accomplished in their various guises as MI-5 and MI-6, et al.
Jack Hawkins projects military bearing and authority as "Schottland", who operates inside The Lion's Den and must have balls of steel to not only stay alive but to sabotage German war plans, such as The Battle of The Bulge. Once again, if this stuff is true........holy smokes. folks! Look for actor Hawkins in another classic Brrrittish war film, "The Cruel Sea".
Like "The Yellow Canary", "The Two-Headed Spy" gets Two Big Thumbs Up, so it's a double home run for screenwriter Malleson. Also worth mentioning is that "Two-Headed" was directed by yet another top Hollywood Craftsman, Andre de Toth. For my money, the Craftsmen are every bit as talented as the directors from the later Auteur school-of-thought, and should be acknowledged as such. That's why I always trumpet their names. /////
Well, there you have it. Another great Two-Fer. Both of these flicks are guaranteed to please, so don't miss 'em. And have a great evening!
Tons.......tons.......and tons..........of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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