Tony Maylam being a director I shamefully know nothing about, I have to say that he has put together a most enjoyable pre-World War I spy yarn that could also have been inspired by Enid Blyton's Famous Five, with the characters portrayed by Simon McCorkindale and Michael York engaging in good, clean friendship (even if, as ever, York sounds effeminate).
Maylam also has a big hand in the gripping script, notwithstanding the fact that logical cause and effect are not its primary concerns. Anyway, I followed the narrative with interest.
Cinematography by Chris Challis is first class, very atmospheric, with plenty of fog to thicken the mysterious shenanigans the Jerries are drumming up in the shape of barges at Juist Island, by the Frisians (I find it interesting that the 1943 film, APPOINTMENT IN BERLIN, starring George Sanders, also had those islands as the intended ramp for a German attack on England... but in WWII).
The film is also helped by the luminous beauty of Jenny Agutter, to me the very embodiment of feminine beauty and class ever since I first watched her in WALKABOUT.
As much as I realize that the story needed a big figure or event to give it weight, unfortunately the appearance of Kaizer Wilhelm in a minuscule island in the Northern sea just seems like Deus ex machina in reverse... utterly unbelievable. Otherwise, a most enjoyable flick with plenty of British stiff upper lip and careful reproduction of the period, including the German flag, military uniforms, vessels and trains, and other details of the day. 7/10.
Maylam also has a big hand in the gripping script, notwithstanding the fact that logical cause and effect are not its primary concerns. Anyway, I followed the narrative with interest.
Cinematography by Chris Challis is first class, very atmospheric, with plenty of fog to thicken the mysterious shenanigans the Jerries are drumming up in the shape of barges at Juist Island, by the Frisians (I find it interesting that the 1943 film, APPOINTMENT IN BERLIN, starring George Sanders, also had those islands as the intended ramp for a German attack on England... but in WWII).
The film is also helped by the luminous beauty of Jenny Agutter, to me the very embodiment of feminine beauty and class ever since I first watched her in WALKABOUT.
As much as I realize that the story needed a big figure or event to give it weight, unfortunately the appearance of Kaizer Wilhelm in a minuscule island in the Northern sea just seems like Deus ex machina in reverse... utterly unbelievable. Otherwise, a most enjoyable flick with plenty of British stiff upper lip and careful reproduction of the period, including the German flag, military uniforms, vessels and trains, and other details of the day. 7/10.