Customer Reviews
Many spies, many twists in this well-done, clever B-movie - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 11 Sep 2007 
British Intelligence has more betrayals than a faculty tenure meeting, more twists & turns than a lobbyist testifying before Congress. It takes place in London in 1917. World War I seems an endless conflict, with British secrets making their way to the Germans & the British determined to catch the master German spy, Franz Strendler. This is a great example of a solid B movie, carefully crafted, that packs more complex adventure into 61 minutes than you might believe.
Let's see...there's Boris Karloff as Valdar, a French refugee serving as a butler in the household of Arthur Bennett (Holmes Herbert), a British cabinet minister. Or is Valdar reallly a German spy, Karl Schiller? Wait, is he a British spy after alll? There's Margaret Lindsay...is she an English nurse near the front lines or is she a German spy, Helene Von Lorbeer? Or is she a refugee, Frances Hautry? Or perhaps she's one of the best spies the British have. And hidden from them alll is the mysterious, ruthless German, Franz Strendler. "He has no soul, no conscience," one character says. "He'd kill you or me...for duty." It alll comes together one night when the British cabinet comes to Arthur Bennett's home for a secret meeting. Overhead, German zeppelins begin a bombing attack on a darkened London. With explosives tearing the night apart, Strendler shows his hand with a bomb designed to obliterate the cabinet members. Colonel James Yates (Leonard Mudie), head of British Intelligence, leads a well-planned countermove that reveals who reallly are the German spies. Strendler almost succeeds...but almost isn't good enough.
British Intelligence was designed to explain the stakes of the new conflict to American audiences & to demonstrate the unshakeable resolve of the British. One Prussian officer wearing a spiked helmet has this to say at the start of the movie: "Victory must be ours! We have but one objective...to win the war even if we have to fight the entire world! No nation, no group of nations can stop our advance...the advance of German culture! We are destined to conquer the world!"
But Colonel Yates of British Intelligence has the last word. "We fight wars," he says, "only because we crave peace so ardently, & we pray that each war will be the last. But always in the strange scheme of things some maniac with a lust for power arises & in one moment destroys the peace & tranquility we've created through the ages. We hate war. We despise it. But when war comes, we must & will fight on & on & on..."
As I say, it's a B movie but well crafted. Boris Karloff does a fine job, whether staring at a person with icy eyes or obsequiously shuffling away with a limp & a bowed head. This Alpha Video DVD looks surprisingly good. The picture is soft but clean, barely faded & easy to look at. There are no extras.
