Dark Journey

Plot synopsis:
In the spring of 1918, a German U-boat stops a Dutch freighter on its way to Stockholm, Sweden during the final year of World War I. The Germans board the ship, identify one man as a Belgian spy, and take him prisoner. One of the passengers questioned is an attractive Swiss dress shop owner named Madeleine Goddard (Vivien Leigh) who is returning to Stockholm from a business trip to Paris, where she purchased dresses for her boutique. After returning to Stockholm, Madeleine, who is a German spy, meets with her contacts and provides information on Allied troop movements she acquired in Paris. The information is cleverly concealed in the gowns she purchased. While the Germans believe that she is one of their top spies, Madeleine is in fact a French double agent working to uncover the identity of the new German secret service leader in Stockholm.
Soon after, a German war veteran named Baron Karl Von Marwitz (Conrad Veidt) enters Sweden. He claims to have left the German Navy because of war injuries, but some of his former colleagues believe he is a deserter. One night, Madeleine goes to a nightclub accompanied by her friend, English secret service agent Bob Carter (Anthony Bushell). She notices Von Marwitz playing a bar room game predicting what girls will say after he kisses them. After she exposes the trick, Von Marwitz becomes intrigued by Madeleine's beauty and cool demeanor. The next day he visits her shop with Lupita (Joan Gardner), the Brazilian socialite he tricked the previous evening. After the temperamental Lupita leaves, Von Marwitz begins asking Madeleine to go out with him. In the coming days, she continues to refuse his requests, even after he offers to purchase all the stock in her shop. When he finally gives up, she gives in and agrees to date him.
Madeleine and Von Marwitz begin seeing each other socially, and despite their differences, they fall deeply in love. Von Marwitz even proposes marriage. Their whirlwind romance is interrupted one night when Madeleine's German co-conspirator, Anatole Bergen, is murdered. Madeleine meets with her German contacts who inform her that the recent information she provided proved disastrous for the German Army. She is ordered to return to Paris immediately and investigate her French contacts. When Madeleine reaches Paris, she is met by a high-ranking French official who presents her with the Médaille militaire for her brave service to her country. Despite her reluctance to continue her work in Stockholm, she is ordered to return.
Back in Stockholm, Madeleine and Von Marwitz are reunited and she reveals that she knows he is the German secret service leader. In response, he reveals that he knows that she is in fact a French spy. Although relieved that they can finally speak honestly with each other, they acknowledge that their dream of a life together can never happen. Soon after, Madeleine turns to her friend Bob for protection, now that her true identity is known to the Germans. While Bob plans her escape from Stockholm and the Germans, Von Marwitz plans her capture and return to Germany. The next day, Bob arranges for Madeleine to be arrested by the Stockholm police, ruining Von Marwitz's plan to capture her quietly.
After Madeleine is deported, her ship is stopped by a German U-boat in neutral waters. Von Marwitz boards the ship and arrests Madeleine for being a French spy. As they are being rowed from the ship to the U-boat, a British Q-ship (a heavily armed merchant ship with concealed weaponry) approaches and engages the U-boat in battle, sinking the enemy vessel. Madeleine is taken aboard the Q-ship while von Marwitz is moved to a British destroyer. Her feelings of love unabated, Madeleine is assured that von Marwitz will not be shot, but instead will be detained until the end of the war. As von Marwitz is rowed away, Madeleine waves and calls out to him, "I'll be waiting."

Tags: murder

Review:
Vivien Leigh is even better in this film than she was in GONE WITH THE WIND.
It seems as though I may have discovered where the story came from as Dark Journey is in fact based on a couple of real life French and German agents operating during World War I.
Like in The Firefly both fall for each other and in the end the female uses all her feminine charms to trap the male as the British use a Trojan horse gambit as well as Vivien Leigh's considerable charms to nail Conrad Veidt.
What do they do, you have to watch Dark Journey for that, but I have to say it is rather clever.Dark Journey and Fire Over England with her then husband Laurence Olivier are the films that got Vivien Leigh her first real critical notice.
Her beauty is stunning in Dark Journey and no hint of the physical and mental problems that plagued her tragically all her adult life.Conrad Veidt who escaped Nazi Germany was also making quite a mark in the British cinema.
He died way too young and never saw the ultimate triumph against Hitler.If any of you have seen The Firefly you know exactly what happens to both Leigh and Veidt.
This film features superb direction by Victor Saville, a magnificent cast led by Conrad Veidt and Vivien Leigh, outstanding production design and costumes while a complex script blends high adventure and romance; a scenario which perfectly makes order from wartime chaos and faith from despair.
Seemingly standard inter-war spy movie with a beautiful female spy, threatening German spies, murder, and clean cut British agents.
The cast is good with Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt playing their roles well.
The supporting cast is like many early movies, lots of professionals with good craftwork and little fame.
Obviously, in a British film the star will be pure in the end, and can not be a German agent.
Probably during WW2, the British film industry reflected differently on the end of the movie, but it was in the can.
An interesting film: fun to watch Leigh and Veidt, and a good period piece on the politics, morays, and society in neutral Sweden in WWI..
Cinema uber villain Conrad Veidt and delicate Vivien Leigh make for an odd but absorbing couple as spies on opposite sides in this suspense romance.
Veidt's nefarious allure and usual commitment to cruelty is tempered long enough to get the attention of Miss Leigh and it gives the somewhat convoluted (she's a double agent) story a suspense that sustains itself up until the final moments.Madeline Goddard (Leigh) poses as a Stockholm dress shop owner while spying for Germany in neutral Sweden.
Goddard and Marwitz eventually become entangled and the passion between the two distracts them momentarily from their assignments which is to expose each other.Veidt and Leigh have some excellent scenes together fraught with suspense and romance as they parry back and forth using charm and suspicion for weapons.
There's a rousing gun battle between a sub and disguised transport in the finale with a somewhat schmaltzy climax that hinders the film, but Veidt and Leigh create enough fireworks of their own to make Desperate Journey worth the watch..
It's Vivien Leigh, who is massively hot as usual, playing a double spy and falling in love with some creepy German guy.
I guess 3 years later it would have been impossible to make this film but in 1937 it was ok.As I said, great supporting cast, solid turn by the leads, nice script and tight directing.
unfortunately the love story is not as well rendered as it could have been (their exchanges are a bit too arch for my taste), the suspense never really builds to a crescendo and the effects in the end naval engagement certainly do not hold up well but overall it's still a pretty good film..
Vivien Leigh is beautiful and effective in her role as a spy masquerading as a Parisian dressmaker.
Those who type Dark Journey "crawls" and makes dunderheads like them yawn incessantly, as if that's the fault of this brilliantly written and acted film and not them, or that the unfolding story is murky, which it clearly is, to them, do not have a clue that great films like this leave a lot of what is happening unsaid, just as the two principals, the characters played by Veidt and Leigh do in their carefully spoken dialogue.
The German agent, the sophisticated and aristocratic Conrad Veidt, and the pouting delicate French agent, Vivien Leigh, are both quite good.
Vivien Leigh is a French agent.
Conrad Veidt and Vivian Leigh play spies for Germany and Britain respectively during WWI.
While I love Conrad Veidt and think he's a seriously under-appreciated actor, I just couldn't get over the idea of him having a romance with a young Vivian Leigh.
Nevertheless it has two fantastic leads in Conrad Veidt and Vivian Leigh who are both excellent.
As for Conrad Veidt; I have no idea why any woman would be attracted to him in real life or in this film.
DARK JOURNEY is a wearisome WWI spy melodrama teaming two wonderful stars, both seen to better advantage in many other films.
VIVIEN LEIGH is certainly ready for all of her close-ups but her role is uninteresting even though she's supposed to be a French spy posing as a German spy for the Swiss government.The plot, as everyone else seems to have said, is confusing and totally lacking the requisite suspense required to keep a viewer tuned in.
It gets off to a slow and murky start on the foggy seas and stays slow and murky for too much of its running time.Surprisingly, CONRAD VEIDT fails to be charismatic as the romantic lead, nor is he as dangerous as he usually is in these sort of movies which comes as a letdown to anyone who admired the Nazis he played in many a war movie.
Likewise, Vivien Leigh can do very little with her role and reportedly stated that she was disappointed in the script and found it confusing.
Curious WWI story - early Vivien Leigh.
Vivien Leigh fans won't want to miss "Dark Journey," a 1937 film starring the up and coming Leigh and Conrad Veidt.
The film takes place during World War I in neutral Sweden, where a Swiss woman, Madeleine Goddard (Leigh) has a dress shop, a front for her spy activities on behalf of - the Germans?
She becomes involved with a German spy (Conrad Veidt) and is put in danger.This film is a little confusing - it was hard to tell who was on what side and when.
Both Leigh and Veidt are very good, but they deserved a better script.Not a huge film, nothing like what would await Leigh in the U.S. a short time later.
Vivien Leigh looks as lovely as ever.
Conrad Veidt is good but the chemistry with Leigh is just not there, in my opinion.
For a spy thriller—there are no thrills or suspense in this poorly scripted and directed film.
The suave, villainous screen persona of Conrad Veidt, usually played to excellent effect, is totally obscured in his portrayal of the German agent, Baron Karl Von Marwitz, who is the head of the intelligence ring.
Vivien Leigh is the "traveling" dress designer Madeleine Goddard, working undercover, shuttling sensitive military information back and forth on behalf of the French cause.
Sure, she was pretty, but if she hadn't been cast in Gone with the Wind, people would look back at her forgettable career and say, "She stinks!" In this movie, one which people who like to watch good movies should avoid, Vivien Leigh stars as a French spy who falls in love with Conrad Veidt, a German spy.
You might wonder why I bothered to rent this one, since I obviously don't like Vivien Leigh very much.
Vivien Leigh disappoints, Conrad Veidt excels.
This pre-War film foreshadows the coming renewed conflict with Germany by telling a story of espionage and intrigue involving Germans and the Allies from the First World War, set specifically in 'Spring 1918' for some reason.
Vivien Leigh is cast as the heroine, a French girl who impersonates a Swiss girl (but who has a British accent, inexplicably) who pretends to be a German spy whilst really being a French spy and working with the British in Stockholm.
The main problem with this film is Vivien Leigh.
Still, the film is entertaining and worth watching, and perhaps I am being too harsh on the big-eyed British-Swiss-French-German 'gorgeous pouting' Leigh.
However, all these faults which I have pointed out in Vivien Leigh are precisely why she was just right for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND, a character who was vain, simpering, narcissistic, spoilt, stuck on herself, and – well, that's what they call type-casting, folks..
In my opinion, "Dark Journey" is Vivien's greatest pre-GWTW movie.
The combination between Vivien and Conrad is just like having fire and ice in love.
It has a life of its own." In my favorite scene from the movie, which is the kissing scene, you could see that even after the kiss, Conrad is still holding Vivien in his arms, admiring for a few more seconds her beautiful, perfect, feminine, heart-shaped face, with those two big emerald eyes and the sweet, little lips.
This is a lovely, unforgettable scene, in which Vivien and the apparently implacable Conrad Veidt make together a wonderful couple of lovers, despite the differences between them.
I would recommend to any fan of the two great actors to watch this spy and romantic film.
For example, there was a scene where Karl (Veidt) is trying to seduce Madeleine (Leigh) at the first dinner party they meet.
I give a 10 to this movie because of Vivien Leigh's unusual beauty and talent, Conrad Veidt's outstanding performance and great charm, because of their unique and fascinating chemistry, because of the interesting, complex and realistic plot,the very good dialogue - many lines are really remarkable, because of the lovely costumes (designed by Rene Hubert) and impressive sets (especially the one at the Grand Hotel), because of the wonderful music score, because of the unforgettable atmosphere which combines love, fashion, war and espionage.
***SPOILERS*** Utterly confusing WWI spy drama that's hard to figure out in who working for whom, the German British or French,in the movie.
Swiss dress shop owner and fashion designer Madeleine Goddard, Vivian Leigh, who constantly travels back and forth from France to Sweden to get the latest French fashions is not only French but a spy for the hated Germans.
The fact that Madeleine can get away with all this without her German contacts,in Sweden, not having a clue abut her actions is by far the biggest surprise in the entire film.While attending a party in Stockholm Medelene meets and fall in love with recently German Army deserter Baron Karl Von Marniz, Conrad Veidt, whom all the ladies at the party are just crazy about.
It's the Baron's job to find the fly in the ointment, or double agent, who's been giving the Germans hell as well as false information that's causing them so much headaches, as well as casualties, on the Western Front.***SPOILERS**** The film goes on a snails pace with nothing really interesting, except the what looks like May to December romance between it's two stars, until Madeleine is finally exposed by her German lover the Baron as a double agent for the French Intelligence service.
All the action is saved for the final few minutes of the movie with Madeline on her way by boat back to Germany to be tried and shot for espionage against the German Government.
Whats worth watching in the film is the strikingly beautiful and future two time Academy Award winner Vivian Leigh in her first staring role.
Made two years before she was to become immortalized in motion picture history in the blockbuster film "Gone With the Wind" Vivian showed that she already had what it takes to be a movie superstar.
As for the refined and sophisticated Conred Veidt he was slated to play the more or less good German in future films about WWII that was just about to brake out and keep him employed in Hollywood playing those parts for the remainder of his movie career that ended on April 3, 1943 when he died of a massive heart-attack at age 50..
I don't know why it is but spy movies always confuse me, especially if the story takes place during WW1 or WW2 (Dark Journey takes place during WW1).
I just couldn't follow it which is too bad because it really looks like a good movie..
Set predominantly in neutral Sweden in 1918, this is quite a clever World War I film when it comes to the spy drama elements but less so when it comes to the romantic ones.
Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt are very engaging leads as the French double agent Madeline Goddard and the German spymaster Baron von Marwitz who fall in love.
However, the fact that practically everyone in the film bar Veidt speaks with an English accent irrespective of nationality and wears civilian or otherwise nondescript clothes means that it is occasionally a little hard to tell which side everyone is on!
While I understand why a British film made in 1937 would be reluctant to depict a German spy in a favourable light, von Marwitz's behaviour does not work in the context of the storyline.
If you're not convinced by the romance in a romantic film, that's not a good sign.
The story is about a double agent played by Vivien Leigh who is a dress shop owner in Sweden.
I enjoyed the ingenious manner they used dresses to provide spy information and how the first part of the movie you believe the Vivien Leigh character to be a German spy.
Yes I have seen this movie with the drama and romance before but what makes it wonderful is the performances of the leads.
What we have here with the British film "Dark Journey" is an espionage thriller set in WWI Europe that had this viewer scratching his head.
From the nebulous title, to the confusing plot twists, to the dozen or so indistinct supporting characters, eventually makes it similar to a thick London fog.The one reason why anyone would be excited about this movie today is the appearance of the young and delicately beautiful Vivien Leigh.
She's cast as a Swiss (or French?) double (or triple?) agent for the British, I guess.
Probably the coolest plot device.Enter Conrad Veidt as a double (or triple?) agent for the Germans, who becomes infatuated with Leigh and ultimately earns her affections.
I've read that Vivien Leigh herself was confused by the plot, and couldn't fathom what her character's motivations were.So, if you don't try to comprehend the machinations of the plot, there are some nifty scenes contained herein.
And there's a great little supporting turn by Joan Gardner as a rival for the affections of Conrad Veidt.
She's a beautiful actress with a great catty delivery who was soon to become Mrs. Zoltan Korda in real life and retire to a life in California society.But I failed to buy into the unusual sight of Conrad Veidt and Vivien Leigh as a romantic couple, and the meandering plot becomes yawn-inducing eventually.
Reading through a few of the comments on "Dark Journey", I'm struck by one reviewer in particular who states that Vivien Leigh is better here than in "Gone With The Wind".
I too am a huge Leigh fan (she's my favourite actress), but I am not so biased as to not acknowledge that this is a bad film.
"Dark Journey" is probably the dullest film Leigh ever starred in, and definitely the least incoherent.The film revolves around a British spy (Leigh) falling in love with a German (Conrad Veidt) at the height of WW1.
A less puzzling, simpler screenplay instead of trying to create a huge complex plot would have worked wonders for this little film.
Vivien Leigh herself admitted she had no idea what was going on in the film, so how the heck are we meant to know?
Veidt and Leigh are pretty good, getting the best out of the material they can, but they just don't work together as a couple (i.e they have no chemistry).
Eventually in this confusing film it is revealed that Vivien Leigh's character Madeleine is French, not Swiss, and that she is a spy for France, not Germany, but it takes a long time to figure out what is going on.
With the exception of the British character Bob Carter, the others are a blur.Conrad Veidt, playing German spy Baron von Marwitz, was nearly 20 years older than young and beautiful Vivien Leigh, and his bearing in the film--not to mention his monocle!--makes him seem even older.
Within two years it would be hard to imagine anyone looking kindly on the character of a German spy.
The creation of autocrats, military arms makers, and rabid superpatriots, WW I wiped out an entire generation of young Britons, Frenchmen, and Germans.It's a well-mounted film, and Vivien Leigh is truly lovely in it, but I did not find it very enjoyable..
The murder doesn't occur until the half of the movie.This is a spy yarn, more than a romance.Leigh was very cute, very endearing.
It isn't a puzzle, even the suspense seems treated rather casually, if it can be such a thing—as if tight in execution, while loose in intention—but the whole espionage story is rather unpretentious, seemly more interested in spying tricks and gadgets, in providing a bit of information about how these things used to be done—not telling a stunning story, because the story itself is functional, it serves the lead, it's but a vehicle, because the movie primarily aims at showcasing a young actress; it's a V.