This picture has acquired topical interest since it was suggested by the ruthless U-boat campaign of 1917, which has a special application to the submarine campaign being waged in the present war.
It is good to see Conrad Veidt back again, too, in a good picture, for however weary you may have become of spy stories you will feel that this one is out of the usual rut and is excellently acted in every department.
It relies not only on its thrills but also on its decisive characterizations
Conrad Veidt dominates the picture with a compelling performance as Captain Hardt, a German submarine commander who is dropped on one of the Orkney Islands to contact another agent. The period is that of 1917, when the submarine campaign was in full swing.
Valerie Hobson is very good too, as a school mistress on the island, whom Hardt mistakes for his expected conferderate.
She tells him that his orders are to sink fifteen British warships and that full details will come from a British officer in the pay of the Germans, Lieutenant Ashington.
It then transpires that she is a British agent and the wife of Ashington, and that they are working in conjunction.
Hardt smuggles himself aboard a ferry carrying prisoners of war by pretending to be a parson. Later he induces the prisoners to mutiny and takes command, only to be attacked by one of his own submarines.
Excellent support comes from Sebastian Shaw, Marius Goring, Cyril Raymond and Hay Petrie.
