This comment contains a spoiler. I was watching this on TCM and enjoying it, with reservations, but stuck with it for the intriguing WWII plot (codes sent to the enemy through music and singing on the radio) and for seeing old masters like Basil Rathbone, George Zucco and Gene Lockhart.
But then Ilona Massey (gawd, she's beautiful!) and George Brent, toward the end of the movie, are up on the balcony of a downtown hotel where Brent, unbeknownst to him, is about to be shot by a villain stationed on an equally lofty vantage point across the street. Ms. Massey, her love for Brent overcoming her "duty" as an enemy spy, tries desperately to get him off the balcony. She knows he is going to be shot.
Brent refuses to move, arguing with her. She keeps tearfully pleading with him, while eyeing the bad guy across the way.
But she never once says, "Darling, there's a man across the street who's going to shoot you." If he'd heard THAT, he would have got off the damned balcony right away! And then, and you know it's coming, she grasps him and turns him so that she gets the bullet in the back. That's when I turned the movie off.
But then Ilona Massey (gawd, she's beautiful!) and George Brent, toward the end of the movie, are up on the balcony of a downtown hotel where Brent, unbeknownst to him, is about to be shot by a villain stationed on an equally lofty vantage point across the street. Ms. Massey, her love for Brent overcoming her "duty" as an enemy spy, tries desperately to get him off the balcony. She knows he is going to be shot.
Brent refuses to move, arguing with her. She keeps tearfully pleading with him, while eyeing the bad guy across the way.
But she never once says, "Darling, there's a man across the street who's going to shoot you." If he'd heard THAT, he would have got off the damned balcony right away! And then, and you know it's coming, she grasps him and turns him so that she gets the bullet in the back. That's when I turned the movie off.