Rarely have I seen a film that I really enjoyed--only to be completely annoyed by an ending that was just dreadful. In other words, all the time I spent on the rest of the film was wasted! Betty Compson stars in this early talkie from RKO films. It begins just before WWI and she is in love with a German guy. But, their love is interrupted by the outbreak of the war and, without explanation, she leaves him. Suddenly, she is meeting with folks in German intelligence--it turns out she's a spy! Now why she broke up with this German I couldn't understand...but oh well.
Her mission is to go to Gibralter to infiltrate the home of the fortress' commander in order to steal some secrets. She impersonates a lady who you assume the Germans have killed. Soon after arriving, however, her old German boyfriend turns up--and he's wearing a British uniform!! Huh?! Talk about a crazy coincidence. And you are now wondering WHO is won WHAT side. This wasn't bad...but baffling.
Unfortunately, how all this worked out in the end was COMPLETELY baffling. Suddenly the writers were faced with the problem of trying to get Betty and her old boyfriend back together. And, they couldn't let them do anything to kill thousands of British sailors (after all, this ISN'T very romantic). So, it results in the most contrived and ridiculous ending I've ever seen. Characters literally do 180 degree turns and behave in ways that just seemed to come out of left field--and you have no idea what's happening. It seriously looked like the ending was just improvised at the last minute and so much of it violated what you'd already seen in the first 80% of the film!! How infuriating! In addition to the frustrating of seeing the convoluted plot, the film also had exceptionally poor sound--which seemed to come and go. It's all pretty sad, as the film WAS pretty good up until the end and up until the sound started disappearing! Not worth your time.
Her mission is to go to Gibralter to infiltrate the home of the fortress' commander in order to steal some secrets. She impersonates a lady who you assume the Germans have killed. Soon after arriving, however, her old German boyfriend turns up--and he's wearing a British uniform!! Huh?! Talk about a crazy coincidence. And you are now wondering WHO is won WHAT side. This wasn't bad...but baffling.
Unfortunately, how all this worked out in the end was COMPLETELY baffling. Suddenly the writers were faced with the problem of trying to get Betty and her old boyfriend back together. And, they couldn't let them do anything to kill thousands of British sailors (after all, this ISN'T very romantic). So, it results in the most contrived and ridiculous ending I've ever seen. Characters literally do 180 degree turns and behave in ways that just seemed to come out of left field--and you have no idea what's happening. It seriously looked like the ending was just improvised at the last minute and so much of it violated what you'd already seen in the first 80% of the film!! How infuriating! In addition to the frustrating of seeing the convoluted plot, the film also had exceptionally poor sound--which seemed to come and go. It's all pretty sad, as the film WAS pretty good up until the end and up until the sound started disappearing! Not worth your time.