Watch I See a Dark Stranger For Free

Overrated and overhyped

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of the first films concerning D-Day, this is a very entertaining spy thriller written by Frank Launder (who also directed) and Sidney Gilliat. It is the only film that I ever seen dealing with the issue of the Irish Free State's neutrality in World War II, albeit somewhat indirectly, and the only one that I am even aware of so this Irishman found it very interesting on that score, particularly since my PhD thesis concerns Irish society and the way that it shaped Irish law from the 1920s to the 1940s. The film's first half was certainly its strongest as I found the introduction of the bumbling Goodhusband and the more competent Spanswick to be slightly distracting. When they arrived on the scene, it became something of a farce as opposed to a thriller with some comedic elements. The film bears some superficial similarities to Launder and Gilliat's earlier and better written film "The Lady Vanishes". Goodhusband and Spanswick are essentially less funny versions of Charters and Caldicott.Deborah Kerr is wonderful in the lead role of Bridie Quilty, an extremely nationalistic 21-year-old Irishwoman who was raised on a diet of her late father's tall tales about his alleged participation in the 1916 Rising and the Irish War of Independence. Taking the old Fenian motto "England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity" to heart, she attempts to join the IRA. However, she is rebuked by Michael O'Callaghan, a former senior republican who has become the curator of an art gallery, who now believes that peaceful, constitutional means should be employed in Anglo-Irish relations. I don't know if he was based on any Irish figure in particular but this was a fairly common story among less radical members of the republican elite in 1940s Ireland, many of whom were or had been in government. Her dreams of joining the IRA dashed, she becomes a spy for the Nazis. In spite of this, however, Bridie remains a sympathetic character as it is clear that she is essentially a good person and that her romanticised ideas about Ireland and fighting the British are being manipulated by the British fascists in the Germans' employ. While I doubt that any of them were as naive as Bridie, this is based on the fact that there was cooperation between IRA members and the Abwehr, the Nazi intelligence service, during the war. Kerr's Irish accent is absolutely pitch perfect in every respect. I have never heard a better Irish accent in any film or TV series, which is refreshing that since many of them are very bad.The quintessential Englishman Trevor Howard is very good as David Baynes, a British Army officer to whom Bridie takes an instance dislike for the sole reason of his nationality. Things get even worse when she discovers that he is writing his thesis on Oliver Cromwell, easily the most hated figure in Irish history. Kerr and Howard have great chemistry and their combative relationship is joy to watch. However, over the course of the film, Bridie comes to appreciate that the British are not all bad as she and David gradually fall in love. She comes into the possession of information concerning the location of the D-Day landings which she was supposed to pass on to the Germans but she decides against it after she realises that she would responsible for the deaths of thousands of British and, more importantly to her, Irish soldiers. The film features great appearances from Raymond Huntley, Brefni O'Rourke, Norman Shelley, David Tomlinson, Joan Hickson and George Woodbridge. With the exception of Bridie herself, all of the Irish characters are played by Irish actors and I appreciated that even though none of them have a big role. I have to say though that I'd have preferred if David Niven had been the male lead since he was a better actor than Howard. Plus he was even more quintessentially English! The film does an excellent job at capturing the colloquialisms of Irish English such as beginning sentences with "ara" when disagreeing with someone and saying "at all at all." These days, such expressions are typically only used by older people, particularly ones from rural areas, but they were considerably more common when the film was made and set. The early and closing parts of the film were actually shot in Ireland, specifically Dublin, Wexford and Louth. When it came to the Dublin scenes, I saw numerous places that I recognised such as the exterior of Heuston Station (or Kingsbridge Station as it was then) and O'Connell Street. The former has not changed since the building was already a century old by then but O'Connell Street has changed quite a bit. Most notably, Nelson's Pillar, which was destroyed by the IRA in 1966, is clearly visible. It also features references to Raidio Éireann, the precursor to RTÉ, and well known Irish figures such as Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, J.M. Synge and Jack B. Yeats. Considering that I don't typically watch Irish films or TV (bar current affairs) since most of them aren't very good, it is a bit of a novelty to hear these things mentioned in a film or, for that matter, to see places that I visit on a regular basis.Overall, this is a very good film but it would have been an even better one if it had maintained its more serious tone throughout rather than introducing more farcical elements. The ending is a little silly. Incidentally, of the three D-Day related films that I have watched in the last two months, this is the only one not to feature an actual D-Day veteran in the cast as Richard Todd appeared in "The Longest Day" and James Doohan appeared in "36 Hours".

What a compelling Irish colleen Deborah Kerr makes. Her spirited scene with the aged former IRA official creates a vivid emotional contrast, and one that likely resonated across the Emerald Isle. We understand from those first few minutes her inherited resentment of Cromwell and the English conquerers. So it's not surprising when she joins up with a German spy to produce a crackling good tale of intrigue in the movie's first half. The German spy's death scene is truly chilling, along with the suspenseful aftermath.But then the bottom falls out. Maybe the only way to understand the misbegotten second half is that someone else was put in charge, and what had been a melodrama of compelling intensity is suddenly-- of all things-- played for laughs! The shift in mood just plain doesn't work, in my book at least. Abruptly, a police official is turned into a bumbling incompetent, and played broadly enough for heavy-handed comedic effect. And if that weren't enough, the low-brow humor soon descends into bad Mack Sennett type slapstick, including ridiculous prat-falls into a bathtub! Keep in mind the first 45 minutes or so has been played soberly, maybe even grimly, with a tight coherent script that, unfortunately, also falls apart. There must be an inside story here. But whatever it is, the second part ruins a perfectly good spy yarn and undercuts a wonderfully impressive performance by a young Deborah Kerr. I'm not opposed to combining intrigue with humor. Certainly, Hitchcock knew how to merge them effectively. Perhaps with his keen judgment and deft touch, he could have salvaged the results here. But as things stand, The Dark Stranger suffers from what amounts to a terminal bi-polar disorder.

(Some Spoilers) Somewhat light comedy about a very very serious subject, espionage in wartime. The film "I See a Dark Stranger" has to do with a young Irish woman Bridie Quilty, Deborah Kerr, who get's involved with a bunch of German spies. This all happens on the eve of the cross-channel invasion of Hitler's Europe:D-Day.Bridie travels to Dublin from her home in Ballygarry to see her hero former Irish freedom fighter, and now curator and administrator of the Irish Easter Rebellion Museum, Michael O'Callaghn played by Brenfi O'Rorke. Shocked at O'Callaghn's benign attitude towards the hated British Bridie is soon spotted by German spy, whom she met on the train, Mr. Miller, Raymond Huntley.With her violent dislike of the British Empire in what it did and is still doing, in occupying Northern Ireland, to her beloved land of Eire Bridie falls right in with Miller and his fellow German spies. Traveling with Miller to the English village of Wynbridge Bridie gets a job as a domestic in an effort to help Miller get a fellow German spy Oscar Pryce, David Ward, freed from British military detention.At Wynbridge Bridie meets British officer Let. David Baynes, Trevor Howard,who for some strange reason, Bridie is anything but friendly with the hated British soldier, falls in love with her. The rest of the movie has Bridie in trying to stick it to the British Empire, by helping it's mortal enemy Germany win the war, slowly realize what she's doing and how it may well have her end up facing a British firing squad!Traveling to the Isle of Man Bridie recovers, hidden in the Isle's Parliament Building, a booklet that the now deceased German spy Miller, who was earlier killed by the British Tommies, ordered her to. The booklet is to later be returned to the German Ambassador to Irland in Dublin who will transmit it's secret coded message back to Berlin. Its then that the naive Bridie is shocked to find out that the booklet's secret code reveals the time and place of the allied invasion of Europe! Knowing that the lives of thousands of allied soldiers, including many of Irish ancestry, are at stake if the Germans get a hold of it Bridie, in a sudden change of heart, burns the booklet in her hotel rooms fireplace. The movie then changes from a spy thriller to a 1930's like screwball comedy with the bumbling and totally ineffective German spies providing most of the laughs!Well paced and very entertaining thriller/comedy with both Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard, as Bridie and David, caught up with circumstances beyond their control. David who's in love with Bridie is now forced to turn her over, after she confessed to him, to the British Military Authorities as a spy that would mean curtain death for her.As much as the movies extremely contrived ending is it still doesn't spoil what happened when your suddenly and out of the blue, together with a clock smuggling funeral possession, hit by it. David facing a dilemma in turning Bridie over to the police tries to smooth things out by turning her over to the police, or so he thought, being from the nation of Free Irland. It's when David suddenly realizes were he's at, the British controlled north of the country, that things really start to go wacko.More of a romantic comedy then anything else "I See a Dark Stranger" balances the dangers of wartime espionage and the ups and downs of a wartime romance, together with a heavy dose of slapstick comedy added in, masterfully. The ending is a real gem in not only with both David & Bridie tying the knot but the place, on David's part, where their to spend their honeymoon having such a negative impact on Bridie. If David had read a book on Irish History he would have known better then to choose the hotel where he and Bridie, who knew her history of Irland well, were to stay at!

Enjoyed seeing how young Deborah Kerr appeared in this picture at the age of twenty-four years. Deborah plays the role as Birdie Quilty who works in her families pub in England and heard all kinds of stories told by people who visited the pub about how Ireland fought against the British years ago and she starts to form a hated toward the English Government. Birdie becomes of age and wants to go to Dublin, Ireland to live and work and she meets up with some very strange people who have listened to Birdie talk about England and they decide to utilize her hatred towards the British Nation for their own benefits. Birdie finds herself in some very difficult situations until she meets up with a British Lt. David Baynes, (Trevor Howard) who seems to fall madly in love with Birdie at first seeing her and on other dates, it becomes serious. However, Birdie has so many dark secrets that she does not want to show any affections towards David and this still does not stop David from following her from one country to another. This is a very great film with plenty of funny moments and at other times can be very dark and mysterious. Enjoy.