Product Details

• Actors: Boris Karloff, Margaret Lindsay, Bruce Lester, Leonard Mudie, Holmes Herbert
• Directors: Terry O. Morse
• Writers: Anthony Paul Kelly, Lee Katz
• Producers: Bryan Foy, Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner, Mark Hellinger
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English, French, German
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Alpha Video
• DVD Release Date: March 18, 2003
• Run Time: 61 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008G8WV
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,800 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "British Intelligence" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fun Espionage Thriller, August 10, 2000

By 

Thomas D. Harrington "archie_leech" (Somerville, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: British Intelligence [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It's no classic, but Karloff fans will like this "B" picture full of twists and turns as you try to figure out just who's the good guy and who's the bad guy.

Best of all it's short and to the point. A virtue that Hollywood seems to be lacking these days.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Many Spies, Many Twists In This Well-Done, Clever B-Movie, November 20, 2005

By 

C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: British Intelligence (DVD)

British Intelligence has more betrayals than a faculty tenure meeting, more twists and turns than a lobbyist testifying before Congress. It takes place in London in 1917. World War I seems an endless conflict, with British secrets making their way to the Germans and the British determined to catch the master German spy, Franz Strendler. This is a great example of a solid B movie, carefully crafted, that packs more complex adventure into 61 minutes than you might believe.

Let's see...there's Boris Karloff as Valdar, a French refugee serving as a butler in the household of Arthur Bennett (Holmes Herbert), a British cabinet minister. Or is Valdar really a German spy, Karl Schiller? Wait, is he a British spy after all? There's Margaret Lindsay...is she an English nurse near the front lines or is she a German spy, Helene Von Lorbeer? Or is she a refugee, Frances Hautry? Or perhaps she's one of the best spies the British have. And hidden from them all is the mysterious, ruthless German, Franz Strendler. "He has no soul, no conscience," one character says. "He'd kill you or me...for duty." It all comes together one night when the British cabinet comes to Arthur Bennett's home for a secret meeting. Overhead, German zeppelins begin a bombing attack on a darkened London. With explosives tearing the night apart, Strendler shows his hand with a bomb designed to obliterate the cabinet members. Colonel James Yates (Leonard Mudie), head of British Intelligence, leads a well-planned countermove that reveals who really are the German spies. Strendler almost succeeds...but almost isn't good enough.

British Intelligence was designed to explain the stakes of the new conflict to American audiences and to demonstrate the unshakeable resolve of the British. One Prussian officer wearing a spiked helmet has this to say at the start of the movie: "Victory must be ours! We have but one objective...to win the war even if we have to fight the entire world! No nation, no group of nations can stop our advance...the advance of German culture! We are destined to conquer the world!"

But Colonel Yates of British Intelligence has the last word. "We fight wars," he says, "only because we crave peace so ardently, and we pray that each war will be the last. But always in the strange scheme of things some maniac with a lust for power arises and in one moment destroys the peace and tranquility we've created through the ages. We hate war. We despise it. But when war comes, we must and will fight on and on and on..."

As I say, it's a B movie but well crafted. Boris Karloff does a fine job, whether staring at a person with icy eyes or obsequiously shuffling away with a limp and a bowed head. This Alpha Video DVD looks surprisingly good. The picture is soft but clean, barely faded and easy to look at. There are no extras.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars British, German, and Double Agents, February 14, 2003

By 

James L. - See all my reviews

This review is from: British Intelligence [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Set during the last part of World War I, this spy thriller begins with the frustrations of the British military over the way the Germans seem to know their next move before they even do. It's obvious there is a spy or leak somewhere that needs to be stopped if they are to have any success in the War. Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay enter into the picture. Individually or together, they could be British agents, German agents, or double agents, and the true identity of each is revealed at the climax. The two spies test each other throughout the film as a plot to kill the British cabinet begins to unfold. The film moves along briskly, with a running time of around an hour. I have to admit that I was occasionally confused by the plot, although by the film's final moments I had figured it all out. Karloff, limping and with a scar, is good as the more sinister (naturally) of the two agents, while Lindsay does a competent job as his female counterpart. The last few minutes are devoted to rallying the public at the outset of World War Two when this was produced, with a poorly concealed speech about Hitler. It's definitely heavy handed, yet it is fun to watch as a sign of the time. Judging by the running time, the cast involved, and the production, this film was obviously intended as a 'B' picture, and as a modest little programmer, it succeeds fairly well. Those expecting a bigger scale production will be disappointed.