BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Lawbolisted Powerful

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

utgard14 Fine WWI spy thriller featuring two of my favorites, the great Boris Karloff and lovely Margaret Lindsay. The story centers around a German secret agent (Lindsay) going undercover at the home of a British cabinet minister (Holmes Herbert), whose scar-faced butler (Karloff) is really a double agent. A few twists & turns keep this one interesting. Set in WWI, the plot and dialogue is applicable to WWII as well. No doubt that was intentional. It's a fine B movie with a crisp pace, short runtime, and great cast. Try not to read too much about it or you're sure to come across some spoilers that might ruin some of it for you.

arfdawg-1 Well made picture.Well paced fight scenes of WWI.This is a very short movie -- only about 60 minutes. Boris Karloff plays a German spy.He's all scarred up in the face.Has a British accent not German. And sports a limp.Not a bad picture.Too bad Karloff is sort of forgotten except for Frankenstein.The plot:During WWI pretty German master spy Helene von Lorbeer is sent undercover to London to live with the family of a high-placed British official where she is to rendezvous with the butler Valdar, also a spy, and help him transmit secret war plans back to Germany.

Theo Robertson France 1917 and every British offensive is met by abject failure almost as though the Germans have been getting prior notice of every British plan to deal a knockout blow to the enemy . A spy is suspected within British headquarters and steps are taken to find him It goes without saying the thinking behind this film released by Warner Brothers in 1940 but I'll say it anyway that Europe was at war and just like last time it's the Germans who were the bad guys . There was one slight difference and that was America wasn't strictly neutral this time . You can say that she wasn't neutral in 1914-18 either but it wasn't cut and dried that America wouldn't join the side of France and Britain in 1917 since it had a very large influx of German and Irish migrants and the slaughter of the American Civil War was still within living memory and was being played out in Europe on an even bigger scale and if it wasn't for the Zimmerman telegram America probably wouldn't have joined the conflict America didn't join the Second World War until December 1941 when the attack on Pearl Harbor and a subsequent declaration of war by Nazi Germany led to American siding with Britain but it did have an empathy with Britain to a degree and this film unashamedly shows it . The Germans are of course inherently bad and live up to every single stereotype of being arrogant . We're shown very early in the film a German stating " we will rule the world and if we don't rule it now with the Kaiser we will rule it later and with someone else " . I suppose if you want to rule the world then a Boheminan corporal is a good substitute for royalty ENEMY AGENT does contain a few good scenes but suffers from trying to do a bit too much . Obviously being a propaganda piece a population not yet at war might get slightly bored with seeing arrogant Germans strutting about on screen all the time so we get corny scenes where a British pilot declares his love for a French nurse by saying " I've fallen in love with you " which will elicit a groan . It should also be pointed out that the British stereotypes match their German counterparts by either being posh boys or chirpy cockneys guv

deschreiber It's hard to imagine a lamer spy movie than this one. The number of times the characters shift from German agent to British double-agent to German triple-agent to British quadruple-agent is ridiculous; it becomes mechanical and almost laughable. And, holy mackerel, how did the Germans ever lose that war if London was so chock full of spies - every other person in the movie involved in sending messages back to Berlin. Some commentator here was impressed by how the story is set in WWI but applies to WWII. Well, yes, my dear, that's because, although the original play it was based on ran in 1918, the movie was made during WWII. The "contemporary" references are incredibly artificial and awkward. At first, I wondered about my historical knowledge when the action stopped, the other characters in the room fell silent and a German officer went glassy-eyed, staring into the air and making a lengthy speech about fighting so that Germany could rule the world. Huh? World War I? Germany rule the world? That wasn't the purpose of Germany in that misbegotten conflict. But after a few more similar set speeches, such as someone predicting that after the current war a power-mad ruler would arise and start another war, or an earnest discussion of how the Germans commit atrocities, but we don't - well, after that, I got the picture. These were simple-minded propaganda add-ons to a play that was already pathetically weak. This is really not worth 61 precious minutes of anyone's life. I'm sorry I let it waste my time.