one of my absolute favorites!

hyped garbage

Best movie ever!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

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. The assortment of largely indistinguishable hangers-on among the German, French, and British groups in Stockholm does not help. 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. Not a credible romance.Even as this film was being made, the atrocities of Hitler's Germany were in full force. Within two years it would be hard to imagine anyone looking kindly on the character of a German spy. But of course the burden of hindsight should not be forced upon this movie, which should stand on its own.A little harder to accept, however, is the romantic treatment of spy activities that ultimately resulted in the slaughter of thousands of men in the trenches of WW I. The brief shot of trench warfare in this movie makes quite a contrast with the scenes immediately following back in Stockholm--the lavish beer hall, the concert, the fashionable dress shop. 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.

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. Baron Karl Von Marwitz (Veidt) arrives in Stockholm to put the war behind him and live an epicurean existence of wine women and song. He also is merely posing. 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. In spite of their contrasting stature they display a nice change of pace chemistry with director Victor Seville maintaining a degree of ambiguity with both leads late into the film as they struggle with duty and desire. 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.

Conrad Veidt and Vivian Leigh play spies for Germany and Britain respectively during WWI. Eventually, the two meet and fall in love--a serious problem since they are on opposite sides and SHOULD try to kill each other! The film poses the question of what to do in such a situation--obey your heart or your patriotism.This film features one of the oddest romantic pairings I can think of off the top of my head. 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. He was older and perhaps too sophisticated---all I know is that I couldn't easily believe this combination. In addition, I am not a huge fan of this sort of film. While it was made pretty well, it just didn't engage me. This is not to say you won't like it--just don't believe anyone who would give this very run of the mill film a 10. The action, acting and direction were all fine--just not all that distinguished and I feel that the film is best described as a decent time-passer.

The plot develops with just enough direction and character development to keep a general story in focus. 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. The production is interesting look at the period and the state of movie making. The special effects are simple, but effective for their period. Obviously, in a British film the star will be pure in the end, and can not be a German agent. However, Leigh does a good job of keeping the real situation under wraps for a while. The characters take on depth, but most drop away by the end. Only the main spies from two sides are left in the center, and the romance overcomes the effects of the war. 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.