Last night's motion picture was "Appointment in Berlin"(1943), in which the ever-stylish George Sanders plays "Keith Wilson", a wing commander with the RAF who, in 1938, becomes outraged when he hears about Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler. Taking to the street, he goes on a tirade denouncing the government. After painting swastikas on a building as a publicity stunt, he's arrested and charged with anti-British activity. He wonders what has happened to his great English homeland. Why the pact with the Nazis? Where are all the patriots? He finds the answers when an Intelligence Agent springs him from jail.
"We had to do it", the agent tells him. He gives Wilson a rundown of the comparative number of armaments between Germany and Great Britain. 40,000 planes to 900. Ditto for tanks. The Brits are trying to catch up, but the Germans have a ten year head start. "If we'd hadn't signed the Munich Agreement, what do you think would've happened?" As an aside, through this dialogue the screenwriter is explaining and excusing the reasoning of Prime Minister Chamerlain, who has traditionally been vilified by historians. Back to the story, after providing him with the German vs. British information, the Intel man recruits Wilson for counterespionage. His mission will be to infiltrate the propaganda circle of Joseph Goebbels, by way of a Prussian aristocrat. But first, they have to make him look bad. As of now, Wilson's in the news as a staunch anti-Nazi. He can't go undercover with that kind of reputation, so Intelligence stages an op, in which Sanders gets "arrested" trying to sell British military secrets. When asked why at his "trial", he states that it's payback for the way he's been treated (i.e., when he was originally jailed for speaking his mind).
He does a short stint in prison, to make it look good, and when he's let out, he now looks legit as a man who would work with the Nazis. His assignment calls for him to get close to "Ilse von Preising" (Marguerite Chapman), the attractive sister of "Rudolf von Preising" (Onslow Stevens), a deputy to Joseph Goebbels. The von Preisings are Prussians. Ilse is a cosmopolitan who spends half her time in England. It's still early in 1939. War has not yet been declared, so Rudolph comes to England to visit Ilse. Wilson is introduced to them at a party. Because he's charming (he's George Sanders, after all), Ilse takes to him. Soon, they're an item, but Rudolph doesn't approve of him. Part of his job is to be suspicious; he works for Goebbels, so Sanders has to prove his bonafides by badmouthing the Brits in his presence. Pretty soon, brother Rudolph is trying to recruit Wilson as a propagandist. This is just the way British Intel hoped it would play out.
The thing is, that Ilse doesn't like the Nazis. "It's not right the way they're pitting Germans against their relatives in England." To say nothing of all the other Evil Stuff they're doing. But anyhow, her position obviously displeases her brother, who by now has brought Wilson to Berlin. Wilson's job is to write anti-British screeds and read them over the radio. They are broadcast to England to appeal to the pro-appeasement crowd, the folks who want annexation with Germany in exchange for "peace". But what Rudolph doesn't know is that Wilson is speaking in code. Because he writes his own speeches, he includes key words according to a number system. The words, taken separately, add up to informational sentences, regarding German troop movements and a potential invasion of England. These coded messages, delivered in pro-German sounding speeches, will actually allow the Brits to prepare for and ward off the invasion.
Now, because his sister is so anti-Nazi, Rudolph von Preising is still not entirely sold on her boyfriend Wilson. Wilson talks a good game, but Rudolph wonders if he's hiding something. Wilson gets caught out when he arranges to meet an underground Dutch resistance propagandist, "Greta Van Leyden" (Gale Sondergaard). Now, he's going to have to escape Berlin. Two American reporters agree to help him. That's all I can reveal about the plot, but it's a good one, well-developed with many twists, including one involving the von Preislings. The acting is fine all around, including a turn by Alan Napier ("Alfred" on Batman) as "Col. Patterson", the Intelligence officer. I give "Appointment in Berlin" Two Big Thumbs Up. At 77 minutes, it's the perfect length for a movie of this type, with no unnecessary subthemes. It's highly recommended, and the picture is good but not razor sharp. ////
The previous night we saw an excellent spy flick from PRC, the legendary Poverty Row studio. In "Waterfront"(1944), J.Carrol Naish plays "Dr. Carl Decker", an optometrist in San Francisco. He's a German/American who's spying for the Nazis, but he gets robbed on the wharf as the movie opens. A random drunk rolls him and steals a code book that has important messages. The next night, his contact "Victor Marlow" (John Carradine) comes looking for it.
Learning it's been stolen, Marlow goes to the waterfront and finds the hoodlum who mugged Decker. After the hood coughs up the info, that he sold the code book to a guy named "Kramer" (Edwin Maxwell), Marlowe shoots him and dumps him in the bay. This angers Dr. Decker, who's trying to keep a low profile because he's in America. "You can't go around shooting people, you'll get the police involved!", he tells Marlowe. "We're here to learn secrets, not kill people." Marlow says "you can do it your way and I'll do it mine." Now, he's on a mission to get the code book.
Marlow needs a place to stay, so he goes to a boarding house run by "Mrs. Hauser" (Olga Fabian), a woman with relatives in Germany. When she tells him she doesn't have any rooms available, he threatens to sic the Gestapo on her parents. "You can have my room", she says in resignation. "That's better", Marlow tells her. "You'll learn that cooperation has it's benefits." Yeah, like not getting shot. In his search for the book, Marlow keeps picking people off. This infuriates Dr. Decker, who considers himself Spy Number One on the West Coast.
Kramer, another spy, wants five thousand bucks to give the book back. Why he would steal it from a fellow spy is anyone's guess. Maybe he, too, wants to make Decker look bad, or maybe he figures he can get away with blackmail because he's 6000 miles from Berlin, but whatever the reason, Marlow shows up, takes the five grand that Decker paid, and shoots Kramer. Then he gives Decker his Five Gees back, but not the code book. John Carradine is appropriately sinister, gaunt and all in black, as the villainous Marlow, but J. Carrol Naish was never a guy to take things lying down. In his career, he's played his share of baddies, so as Decker, he's not gonna let Marlow get away with all this intimidation. When he's finally had enough, it's his turn to pull a gun. Will he shoot Marlow and attract the cops, or.......
That's for you to find out. "Waterfront" is more about the atmosphere than the location of the code book. For a PRC movie, they have a good set of the foggy wharf at night. I assume it's a mock-up; they wouldn't have had the budget to actually go to San Francisco, would they? Anyway, there are creepy old dive bars and a creaky wooden pier. It looks authentic in an Expressionistic way, and J.Carrol and Carradine give their all. You might laugh once or twice when Marlow pulls out his Mauser pistol (which will end up giving him away). The director uses it like a punch line to Marlow's threats, so the way it appears in the frame is almost funny. Between that, and the rivalry between Carradine and Naish, there's more than enough reason to like this movie. Me, I loved it, but then I love anything with the great John Carradine, especially when he was younger and still showing he could act. He's fantastic in "Waterfront", which gets Two Big Thumbs Up. Once again, the picture is soft, but the movie is a gem. Don't miss it! ////
That's all for this evening. Happy Birthday to the great David Lynch. I wish you Blue Skies and Golden Sunshine, All Along the Way, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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