Since talkies took over the movies, I had worked with
some good writers, but I had never met anything like this… Michal Powell, A
Life in Movies
So, here it is, the first of the twenty films Michael
Powell and Emeric Pressburger made together which would some of the finest ever
released in Britain and beyond. Having seen A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
on Monday introduced by Thelma Schoonmaker (Powell’s wife and a film editor of
world-renown) and Scottish director Kevin Macdonald (Emeric’s grandson), it was
interesting to watch and compare with a film bookending their Second World War
collaborations both in terms of style, budget and viewpoint. It’s never darkest
than before the dawn and colours of AMOLAD are contrasted by the bleak greys of
this starker spy thriller released in August ’39 just weeks before the
declaration of war on 1st September.
After Powell’s first major feature, The Edge of the
World, Alexander Korda offered him a contract at Denham Studios and put him
to work on potential projects with limited appeal and budgets. The director’s
experience on so-called quota quickies, such as the comedic Hotel Splendide
(1932) and the business thriller Rynox (1932) – screened last Monday before
AMOLAD - showed Powell could make the most of limited budgets and scripts and
by this stage he was confident enough in his abilities to make the most of any
opportunity even if it meant heading to Hollywood.
This project was based on a 1917 novel by J. Storer
Clouston and a scenario from Roland Pertwee which did not impress Powell at
all, cue a re-write which Korda’s co-producer, Irving Asher, also had his
doubts about: “… someone is supposed to re-write the script; he has already messed
everything up, transformed the masculine role into a feminine role, invented a
few new characters…” A voice piped up announcing himself as the re-writer,
Emeric Pressburger, who read out his notes “… about a film that had nothing to
do with the original script…” as Powell told Bertrand Tavernier in an interview
for Midi-Minuit Fantastique, October 1968. A slightly different sequence
of events is described in his memoire.
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| Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson |
He had stood Storer Clouston’s plot on its head and
completely restructured the film…
Powell had already met with his star, Conrad Veidt, who
was hard to impress to put it mildly, but Powell’s vision of his character as “…
a man who has a fanatical conception of his work…” piqued him and was
realised by Pressburger’s re-write. Korda agreed and the course was set for an
adventure on the Western Isles only fifty miles as the gannet flies from Foula
as Powell put it. Whilst Mickey had been making the quickies, Emeric had been
scripting in Germany and other European productions, the two were no overnight
success, they had learned their craft. Emeric had been hired by his fellow Hungarian
“Alex” who, Powell felt sure, had manipulated the situation to get him involved
in this film.
From separate directions writer and director imagined not
only a fuller role for Veidt but also one that would allow Valerie Hobson to
shine in her role as a double agent. Powell describes the four pulling the
script together with Veidt and Hobson acting out script revisions on a daily
basis and honing their narrative along with their working bond. The film is remarkable for the treatment of
The Enemy; even once the war had started, their German characters were always
people even ones compelled by alien duty, and this can be found in everything
from Colonel Blimp, Battle of the River Plate, One of Our Planes and more. How
much more stirring to show the intelligence and dignity of the other side
rather than just caricatures. The War Ministry didn’t always agree though.
Back in Spring ’39 though and hopes of peace were still present,
the motivation for this film is therefore somewhere in what Powell described as
Korda’s aim to establish Denham Studios as a ready-made propaganda unit for
when war was inevitably declared. In doing so, Powell believed that he saved
the British film industry.
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| The Old Man of Hoy |
Location and place are very strong themes in The Archers
work and Powell went up to Scapa Flow in the Orkneys and visited not just the
Old Man of Hoy, as featured in the film, but also Storer Clouston to get as
much information on the locale and the story as possible from the author. He
also had a small team with him, “a wildcat filming unit” who could take not
just reference shots but shoot atmospheric and establishing shots using doubles.
The trip helped inform the set design of Vincent Korda – Alexander’s brother –
who faithfully recreated the tight spaces of Hebridean buildings and enabled Powell’s
sense of place to be supported on their tight budget.
The results are impressive still with Powell’s creation
of an urgent and unsettling Isle of Hoy, with Veidt imperious and sensitive as
the principled German U-Boat commander, Captain Hardt and Hobson magnetic the
spy Fräulein Tiel masquerading as a schoolmistress and Hardt’s commander in
this operation. Also good is Sebastian Shaw as the drunken and faithless Lt.
Ashington who is willing to sell out the Royal Navy in revenge for his
treatment. Hardt has little respect for this lack of professional loyalty but
is set on leading a squad of U-boats to pick off dozens of Royal Navy ships in
what could have been a pivotal moment for the war.
It's a tense film, set mostly in darkness and which has
rich characters as well as many surprises in a twisty script that is tribute to
Pressburger’s skill, a man Powell had been waiting for, a writer of novelistic
vision and who could create spies and others with plenty of grey…
“There were close-ups of Conrad Veidt that were as
good as any of eth German expressionist films. Veidt knew how to use the
muscles of his face and eyes and I knew how to photograph them…”
Powell’s next film involved working with Veidt again on
The Thief of Bagdad and, after that Contraband with Connie paired again with
the remarkable Miss Hobson. Powell had learned his lessons well from Rex Ingram
and he knew that filmmaking was teamworking, not just with his new writer but
also with cast and crew. The Spy in Black was how it began and the films
started to flow thick and fast as the war began and these alliances brought
further fruit.
Of those who would feature again in Archers’ films, Marius
Goring plays Hardt’s second in command, Bernard Miles plays a German hotelier and
Esma Cannon has a bit part as a Scottish lassie.
We watched a 35mm print of the BFI restoration, supported by the BBFC, that looked fabulous on the big screen. You can also watch the film for free on
the BFIPlayer whilst details of the full programme of the Powell and
Pressburger season is on the BFI site: a Season of Seasons! Four films for me so far and dozens more to follow, see you on the Southbank.
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