Secret Lives
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Secret Lives |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1937 |
| length | 79 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Edmond T. Gréville |
| script |
Basil Mason Hugh Perceval Edmond T. Gréville |
| production | Hugh Perceval |
| music | Walter Goehr |
| camera | Otto Heller |
| cut | Ray Pitt |
| occupation | |
| |
Secret Lives is a 1937 British spy drama set in World War I directed by Edmond T. Gréville, starring Brigitte Horney in one of her two pre-war British films . The story is based on a novel by Paul de Sainte Colombe .
action
Paris, August 1, 1914. 22-year-old Lena Schmidt is woken up by her father Karl, who tells her that war has broken out between France and Germany. Both stores are full of hostile French customers who accuse Schmidt of being a German spy. He calls the police, but instead of helping them, the officers arrest the father and daughter. Lena and Karl are deported to separate internment camps. A French intelligence officer comes up with the idea that the energetic Lena could be a good spy against her own country in return for her and her father's release. Lena then flees the camp after seducing a security guard and stealing his weapon, and immediately throws the pistol into a puddle. She reached a train station in a town and, when she saw uniformed men, escaped with the next train in the direction of Dijon . Here, of all places, she comes across the bald-headed intelligence officer who made her the immoral offer of espionage against her homeland. He assures her that she does not have to return to the camp because she has two useful gifts: she speaks fluent German and is now free. This is how Lena learns that her father died while interned.
As a meanwhile fully trained spy who works for the French secret service, Lena seduces her German opponent Franz Abel in Switzerland, makes him drunk and steals top secret information from him. Back in Germany, Abel is found guilty of high treason and shot. When the imperial government learns about the background, she absolutely wants to get Lena Schmidt into her hands and demands that the Swiss government extradite the German citizen. To prevent Lena's deportation, her French superior orders Lena to marry a French officer. Volunteers should go ahead, and Lena's future will be decided by playing cards. Lieutenant Pierre de Montmailon draws the ace of hearts and is Lena's future. He agrees to marry Lena, but makes one condition. The newly wed couple move into a furnished hotel suite. Lena soon finds out that she is beginning to fall in love with the handsome stranger.
When Lena and Pierre return home one evening, their bald head officer is already waiting for the young agent against their will. He insists on speaking to Lena alone and orders her to go to Spain. When Lena objects to this, the man replies that her recent marriage to Pierre was one of the comforts that were granted to her and that these would have ultimately saved her life. After the bald man leaves, Lena tells Pierre tearfully that she must obey the order, but that after the war they will both be together forever. Meanwhile, the German secret service tries to get hold of the Germans in French services. You send the best man, known only under the code J 14. He should contact Lena and give her false information. In Barcelona, Lena is on the road as a successful cabaret singer when she is announced a hot-blooded womanizer, a man named Don José Ramio, who absolutely wants to get to know her. In truth it is her German opponent J 14. The German spy understands his work even better than Lena ...
November 1918, the war is over. Lena finally meets Pierre again, and both start planning their honeymoon, which has not yet been completed. A message from the French War Ministry announces the impending annulment of the marriage of convenience. Pierre admits to Lena that this was his condition for getting married, but he has since changed his mind. He wants to stay married to her now that he has learned to love Lena. Lena is looking forward to a sweet love affair and no longer wants to work as a spy, but the French continue to put her under pressure. The decision has been made: Lena is more useful to the French when she is unbound, and so they insist on a divorce. She returns to her father's shop and is warmly welcomed by her new owner, but she is mistreated by French shop customers. Her bald liaison officer is already waiting outside, and he takes her to the espionage headquarters against her will. There they tell Lena that the information given to her by J 14 led to the sinking of three French transport ships and that the German secret service provided them with evidence that she also worked for the Germans. Lena is to be brought to justice for high treason, the death sentence has already been agreed. Lena is continued. Pierre runs after her, but he can no longer save her.
Production notes
Secret Lives premiered in London on September 27, 1937. The strip was never seen in Germany.
Leading actress Brigitte Horney had already made her English-language film debut in the British production “ The House of the Spaniard ” shortly before .
criticism
The British Film Institute called the film an “elegant spy thriller” and judged: “The film is more of a character play than a suspenseful thriller: the background details of Lena's missions remain generally unclear, instead emphasis is placed on a detailed representation of her confused and contradicting feelings. which she has in view of her rescue from an internment camp, only to be ruthlessly exploited by the French authorities. "
Individual evidence
Web links
- Secret Lives in the Internet Movie Database (English)