User reviews

This is the tragic story of Lena, a young German-born woman at the start of World War 1, whom has lived all her life in France: the sudden hatred she faces on account of her birth, her subsequent escape from an internment camp, then being forced by the French authorities to become a spy, finally becoming a target for persecution by both sides.

The beautiful German star Brigitte Horney gives a magnetic performance as Lena, being sensitively directed by Edmond Greville. In his positive review of BRIEF ECSTACY, made for the same company in the same year, Graham Greene observed Greville's ability to photograph women: he demonstrates this here with a superbly composed shot of Lena, looking very alluring, having successfully completed her mission of seducing a high-ranking German official and feeding him false information, which captures her dismay and unhappiness at the work she is obliged to perform. Greville had the services of top cameraman Otto Heller, though production values are otherwise typical of a British feature of the day. The regular French officer, played rather woodenly by Neil Hamilton, whom has undergone an arranged marriage with Lena, though the two soon fall in love, methodically destroys the absurdly baroque ornamentation of the room she has been provided with, and which symbolises the twisted world of the espionage services. Ivor Barnard is at his sinister best - or worst - as Lena's creepy supervisor, while the closing frames are particularly poignant.

The movie feels a bit like a concept at times, rather than a complete movie. Strangely the storyline is also a bit chaotic and hard to follow at times.

Hard to be able to review the acting, since it wouldn't be fair to compare it to contemporary movies, but the directing was nice. Story ended a bit abruptly tho...

.....and I did not want to .

Lena ,a German girl ,living in Paris ,is having a bad time when WW1 breaks out.She's sent to a concentration camp(?) but the French realize that,as she speaks German,she could be a wonderful spy.A far-fetched story takes the heroine to Switzerland where she has problems:to solve them,she must marry a French officer.The military men have no choice:he who draws the ace of heart will marry Lena,dismiss! As it often happens (if we trust the script writers) ,the forced newly -weds fall in love with each other.But duty calls...

Edmond T.Greville is French ,and although he claimed that the English crews were more professional,his best work ("Menaces" )was made in his native country."Secret lives" is an implausible story.When they say the war is over,we haven't even got the feeling a war happened.Probably inspired by Mata-Hari ,Lena's character is not really endearing,even in the "moving " final scenes.

The first thing to be said is that the print used for the DVD seems pretty pristine and there is no sign of subtitles.In the thirties the hands of producers were pretty much tied by the censors,so no films about the current situation in Germany were allowed,but it was alright to make films about the First World War.As a result there were many films about this war,and in particular spies.Unfortunately this is not the best example of such films.it is very slowly paced.The leads are rather charismatic.Parachuted in American actor doesn't even appear till 32 minutes have elapsed.Hamilton marries Hornet to give her French citizenship and keep her out of the hands of the Germans.Hornet seems to be doing an imitation of Dietrich right down to the song in a club dressed in a ridiculous costume sitting cross legged on a chair.The pair fall in love and all this leads up to a rather lame ending.Incidentally towards the end Hay Petrie clearly mouths the word bloody but it has been erased from the soundtrack.