The Two-Headed Spy (1958)

Director:

André De Toth

Writers (WGA):

J. Alvin Kugelmass (story)
Michael Wilson (screenplay) (originally as James O'Donnell)

Release Date:

16 February 1959 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller | War

Plot:

This movie is based on a true story as written in A.P. Scotland's autobiography "The London Cage". The plot has greatly exaggerated the actual events of A.P. Scotland's experiences, including the addition of a fictional love interest.

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Hitler | Spy | General | Singer

Cast

Jack Hawkins	...	Gen. Alex Schottland
Gia Scala	...	Lili Geyr
Erik Schumann	...	Lt. Reinisch
Alexander Knox	...	Gestapo Leader Müller
Felix Aylmer	...	Cornaz
Walter Hudd	...	Adm. Canaris
Edward Underdown	...	Kaltenbrunner
Laurence Naismith	...	Gen. Hauser
Geoffrey Bayldon	...	Dietz
Kenneth Griffith	...	Adolf Hitler
Robert Crewdson	...	1st Gestapo Agent
Michael Caine	...	Gestapo Agent
Harriette Johns	...	Karen Corscher
Martin Benson	...	Gen. Wagner
Victor Woolf	...	Pawnbroker

Also Known As:

Clock with a Face (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U | West Germany:18 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Sabre Film Production

Trivia:

According to Denis Gifford in his article "Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler?" from the film history tome The Movie, this film was the first British film made after World War II to feature Adolph Hitler as a character.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Several transitional scenes (staff car traveling on the autobahn, refugees streaming through Berlin) are used more than once.

Heroes in the shadow.

Andre De Toth,who 's famous for directing mainly westerns ,pays here a tribute to men and women who work in the shadow,at their own risk:Jack Hawkins portrays a German officer ,who secretly refuses the nazi ideology and who passes on military informations to the Allies.He is helped by a courageous singer,played by beautiful Gia Scala -who would be the traitor in "Guns of Navarone" (1960),and who died in the late sixties of overdose.

Andre De Toth wanted to show the facts and nothing but the facts.So,no psychology here.His choice leaves the spectator hungry for more:why

this officer who fought during WW1 and suffered supreme insult of defeat, why should he join the other side?

The movie is absorbing,with a very competent cast,some funny scenes (the aide-de-camp who believes he's found evidence against his chief,while listening to Hawkins/Scala 's conversation and is called peeping tom by a superior),some suspenseful ones influenced by Lang and Hitchcock(the car got bogged down).

Outside the westerns,do not miss De Toth's "house of wax".