I Was a Spy

A nurse who doubles as a spy in German-occupied Belgium attracts the attentions of a German commandant.

During the First World War, a young nurse in German-occupied Belgium (Madeleine Carroll) secretly feeds military information to the British, while harbouring guilt whenever injured German soldiers are brought in for treatment. Her feelings are further conflicted when she begins to attract the attentions of a German commandant (Conrad Veidt).

Victor Saville’s film of Marthe Cnockaert’s autobiographical account is an unjustly unheralded British feature which, like much of the more popular WWI fiction, focuses on non-British protagonists.