British Intelligence (Warner Bros.) (1940)

PUBLICITY — ADVANCE STORIES, ANNOUNCEMENTS, CAST Mat 207—30c A SPY AT WORK is Margaret Lindsay, shown here in a scene from Warner Bros.-First National's ''British Intelligence," at the Strand Friday. (Lead) Strand Slated for “‘British Intelligence, ’’ Timely Yarn Current events make an extremely timely film of “British Intelligence,” the Warner Bros. picture featuring Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay, which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday, for it tells a vivid, exciting and engrossing tale of war-time espionage during the 1914-1918 World War. Much of its interest, aside from its melodramatically exciting incidents, arises from the thorough exposition it gives of the methods of operation which spies use in war-time. And it makes one great point which is probably as true today as it was then—that spies spend as much time spying on each other as they do in trying directly to obtain military information. In fact, as the plot of “British Intelligence” unfolds, the audience is, for a time, just as mystified as the high officials of England and Germany as to just which nations some of the spies are really working for. Sent to England by the German Government to act as a spy, Helene Von Lorbeer, played by Margaret Lindsay, manages to become a guest at the home of Arthur Bennett, British Cabinet Minister. At the house, the supposed Belgian butler, portrayed by Boris Karloff, reveals himself to her as Schiller and she later learns that he is really Strendler, most dangerous of all German spies. The head of the British Intelligence suspects that the butler is a German spy, but doesn’t know he is the muchhunted Strendler. So a trap for the suspected spy is set by the announcement that an important cabinet meeting will be held at the Bennett house. Strendler sets a time-bomb to kill the cabinet members, but just before the bomb is exploded, heroic action on the part of the British Intelligence foils the plot and ends Strendler’s career. In addition to Karloff and Miss Lindsay, the cast includes Maris Wrixon, Bruce Lester, Leonard Mudie, Holmes Herbert, Lester Matthews, Austin Fairman, Clarence Derwent and Stuart Holmes. The screen play is an adaptation by Lee Katz of a stage play by Anthony Paul Kelly, and the production was directed by Terry Morse for Warner Bros.—First National. Pigeon Steals Scene In Strand Film Probably for the first time in the oddity-filled history of films, a separate production unit was devoted one day to filming scenes starring a pigeon. The scenes were for the Warner Bros. spy picture, “British Intelligence,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. While the regular company directed by Terry Morse worked at the old Vitagraph Studio in Hollywood, the pigeon company did its stuff on the rear of the Burbank lot. Eight scenes were taken. The humans in them were represented only by their hands. A grubby and grimy pair of hands, supposedly those of a peasant, put a message capsule on the bird’s leg and released it. A military-gloved hand of a German intelligence officer picked up the bird later. The pigeon’s final scene had to be a success, for it couldn’t be re-filmed. Tossed up into the air, it departed for home, as homing pigeons do. Young Bruce Lester, British film idol, plays an army flier opposite Margaret Lindsay’s spy role in Warner Bros.’ “British Intelligence,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. In real life, he’s a reserve army flier. Page Six Miss Lindsay Learns Code Margaret Lindsay learned a very special kind of typewriting from Leon Turrou, the former spy-chasing FBI agent, and that was how to tap out messages in the famous wartime Wolfgern code. She had to learn it for a scene in “British Intelligence,” the Warner Bros. spy melodrama coming to the Strand Theatre next Friday. Boris Karloff, Screen Bogey Man, Just Softy at Heart Laugh at Boris Karloff’s distaste for killing anything, even a fly, or shudder at his cinematic monster characters. Kid him about his British accent. But don’t accuse him of having adopted “Boris Karloff” as a stage name. He has a better claim to it than that, and he didn’t adopt it as an attentiongetting theatrical moniker. Far from it. He adopted it to dodge attention. He was fleeing from fate and people, and was being sought under his real name, William Henry Pratt. He wasn’t fleeing from his native England because of any crime he had committed, but to escape following the destiny that had been set for him by tradition and a caste system. He’d been destined and edu Mat 105—15c cated for China consular service, and would have faced years as a clerk in some consular office. Instead, he cut loose and came to Canada. This excursion began as soon as he was graduated from King’s College, and ended in Hollywood. In between were many adventures. Exactly how he became an actor has never been told before. The man who, today, doesn’t like to kill so much as a fly, probably will not like to have it told here. The records tell on him, however: he’d been in a very brutal boxing bout and was picked by the manager of the Ray Brandon Players, a stock company of Kamloops, B. C., to play a “heavy.” It was hunger that originally caused him to climb into the ring. Karloff’s latest film is “British Intelligence,” coming to the Strand Friday. (Opening Day) Boris Karloff at Strand In “British Intelligence’”’ War-time espionage is the timely subject of “British Intelligence,” a swiftly-paced Warner Bros. melodrama which opens today at the Strand Theatre with Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay in the leading roles. Based on a stage play by Anthony Paul Kelly, the screen play of Lee Katz weaves and then unravels an intricate web of intrigue, espionage and counter-espionage. Its period is the World War of 1914-1918 and the spies whose activities it concerns are in the service of England and Germany. Karloff is depicted as a superspy in the service of Germany, who has managed to convince the British Intelligence that he is working for England. Lovely Miss Lindsay is seen as an ace operative for one of the warring nations although she has managed to convince both England and Germany that she is working for them. The most thrilling feature of the highly exciting film is a gigantic air raid over the heart of London. During this raid, Karloff sets a time-bomb in the home of a British Cabinet Minister, planning to wipe out the entire Cabinet, which is in session at that time. Breath-taking scenes follow the setting of the bomb and only heroic action on the part of the British Intelligence operatives renders the bomb ineffective. In addition to Karloff and Miss Lindsay, the cast includes Maris Wrixon, Bruce Lester, Leonard Mudie, Holmes Herbert, Lester Matthews, Austin Fairman, Clarence Derwent and Stuart Holmes. The production was directed by Terry Morse for Warner Bros.-First National. ‘British Intelligence’ At Strand Shows War Spy Work Espionage and intrigue, elements of great current interest, are the basis of Warner Bros.’ timely film, “British Intelligence,” which is coming to the Strand Theatre on Friday. To keep the film authentic, the studio research department burned the midnight oil these many weeks for material on World War espionage and counter-espionage. The theme is strong, one which the Strand has sought for a long time to bring to the public. Spies and their work have filled newspapers and public thought, and now “British Intelligence” shows them at work in a boiling Europe. Margaret Lindsay plays the role of a girl posing as a German spy working for the British government and a British spy working for the German government all at the same time. Boris Karloff portrays the ace German spy who has been causing many an Englishman gray hair. The action represented by the two coming together is an accurate account, while entirely fictional, of events which might be transpiring abroad at the very moment. The pretzel-twisted screen play was written by Lee Katz, based on a play by Anthony Paul Kelly. Terry Morse directed the picture and Sid Hickox, A.S.C., has done some clever work with unusual photographic effects. Miss Lindsay’s gowns are by Howard Shoup. SYNOPSIS CAST OF CHARACTERS ..--.-BORIS KARLOFF MARGARET LINDSAY Maris Wrixon Bruce Lester -..-Leonard Mudie Holmes Herbert Winifred Harris c Lester Matthews Crichton John Graham Spacy George Bennett Austin Fairman REAR PE ets Ph i ee Clarence Derwent Miss Risdon Louise Brien Kugler Frederick Vogeding Carlos de Valdez Frederich Giermann .Willy Kaufman Frank Mayo Stuart Holmes Sidney Bracy Jack Mower DOrotny. 3s oe44 6. Frank Bennett James Yeats. Thompson Brixton Luchow Crowder PRODUCTION Directed by TERRY MORSE Screen Play by Lee Katz; Based on a Play by Anthony Paul Kelly; Photography by Sid Hickox, A.S.C.; Art Director, Hugh Reticker; Dialogue Director, John Langan; Film Editor, Thomas Pratt; Gowns by Howard Shoup; Music by H. Roemheld. (Not for publication) During the World War, Helene von Lorbeer (Margaret Lindsay) poses as a spy for both Germany and England. Acting as a nurse in a French hospital, she cares for Frank Bennett (Bruce Lester), a wounded British flier. She leaves him, however, when given an assignment in England. Helene gets into the household of a British cabinet member as a guest. The butler there is Schiller (Boris Karloff), the great German spy, whose capture she must bring about. Intrigue tightens still closer as Frank Bennett turns up as the son of the people she is “visiting.” A trap is set to catch Schiller by announcing a Cabinet meeting of great secret importance to be held at the Bennett home. Schiller sets a time bomb to massacre the Cabinet members. In the rapid-fire action that follows, Helene is wounded. Schiller escapes, but he is killed a moment later by a raid bomb. Margaret Lindsay Femme Lead in ‘British Intelligence’ Margaret Lindsay, whose latest film is “British Intelligence,” coming to the Strand Friday, is one of those few screen players who thinks amateur theatricals, but not too much of them, are the ideal training school for screen acting. “IT had a little professional stage experience here and in England,” she declares. “I’m sure it was enough. In fact, it was a little too much; gave me a little too much habitual stage technique I had to unlearn before I felt free in the screen medium. “There’s a great difference between the effect of stage training on character and comedy actors, and straight leads who turn to screen,” she points out. “A character actor who plays strongly individual, per Mat 107—15c MARGARET LINDSAY haps even eccentric characters, can be much broader in acting technique on the screen. “What is repressed acting on the stage becomes _ scenerychewing and ranting in film close-ups and through the microphones. In a film close-up, a mere glint of the eye, tightening of the lips, twitching of a jaw muscle, is acting. These subtle things mirror inward emotion and thought. “For these reasons I believe that a brief apprenticeship in school theatricals, followed by post-graduate work in some such fine stage-training ground as Pasadena Community Playhouse, is sufficient stage experience. That is, for boys and girls who hope to play ‘straight leads,’ the most difficult roles.”