Espionage

About Espionage

Espionage is a 1937 American Proto-Noir, spy-film, adventure, drama, romance, comedy thriller film directed by Kurt Neumann and written by Leonard Lee, Ainsworth Morgan and Manuel Seff, based on the 1935 West End play Espionage by Walter Hackett. The film stars Edmund Lowe, Madge Evans, Paul Lukas, Ketti Gallian, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, and Frank Reicher. The film was released February 26, 1937, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Article

Contents

Plot

A smart-aleck mystery novelist agrees to board the Orient Express to get the goods on an arms dealer for a newspaper editor pal. But when his passport is lifted by a pickpocket, he finds himself forced to pose as the husband of passenger Booth, unaware that she's a reporter who's also on Kronsky's trail.

Cast

Edmund Lowe as Kenneth Stevens

Madge Evans as Patricia Booth

Paul Lukas as Anton Kronsky

Ketti Gallian as Sonia Yaloniv

Richard "Skeets" Gallagher as Jimmy Brown

Frank Reicher as Von Cram

Billy Gilbert as Turk (billed as William Gilbert)

Robert Graves as Duval

Leonid Kinskey as Maxie Burgos

Mitchell Lewis as Sondheim

Charles Trowbridge as Doyle

Barnett Parker as Bill Cordell

Nita Pike as Fleurette

Juan Torena as South American

George Sorel as Maitre d'Hotel

Gaston Glass as La Forge

Egon Brecher as Chief of Police

Leo White as Barber (uncredited)

Russell Hicks as Alfred Hartrix (uncredited)

Gino Corrado as Bandleader (uncredited)

Ann Rutherford as Train Passenger (uncredited)

Article from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), where it is maintained by volunteer editors.

Notable quotes

“Because something is not what it is said to be, Ma'am, does not mean it is a fake. It may just have been wrongly attributed.”
— Alan Bennett, in A Question of Attribution; said by Anthony Blunt
“I played it slightly tongue-in-cheek because I never quite believed that James Bond was a spy because everybody knew him, they all knew what he drank. He’d walk into a bar and it would always be, 'Ah, Commander Bond, martini, shaken not stirred.’ Spies are faceless people.”
— Roger Moore in "Roger Moore interview: 'I was never very confident with girls'" by Tim Auld, The Telegraph, 23 May 2017.
“O children of Adam, let not the devil seduce you, as he expelled your parents from the garden, pulling off from them their clothing that he might show them their shame. He surely sees you, he as well as his host, from whence you see them not. Surely We have made the devils to be the friends of those who believe not.”
— Quran, Chapter 7 (Al-A’raf) : 27
“No spy, however astute, is proof against relentless interrogation. Some unforseen circumstance, some trivial lapse, is pounced upon, exploited by the interrogator, until a break is complete.”
— Lt-Col Robin Stephens in Camp 020: MI5 and the Nazi spies (2000) by the Public Record Office, p. 105
“Indeed, there may well be many who will agree that death by hanging is almost too good for a sailor who will encompass the death of thousands of his shipmates without qualm.”
— Lt-Col Robin Stephens, Camp 020: MI5 and the Nazi spies (2000) by the Public Record Office, p. 198
“To MI5, if you steam this open you are dirty buggers.”
— Anonymous letter sent to a prominent member of the Communist Party of Great Britain; quoted in "Spycatcher" (1987) by Peter Wright, p. 46

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.