***SPOILERS*** Rediculas war time espionage drama that in fact takes place in the early summer of 1939 when there was no war going on in Europe between Germany and Britian. We have this fun loving American couple Frances & Richard Myles, Joan Crawford & Fred MacMurray, traveling on vacation to Nazi Germany in order to obtain for Great Britian the secret blueprint for a magnetic mine that the Germans are working on.
Despite the movies title-Beyond Suspicion-the two especially Richard Myles act so obnoxious and suspicious that it's a miracle that the Nazi's didn't suspect them of being spies as soon as they laid eyes on them. That's in Richard's in you face dislike of anything German to the extent of calling a Nazi Gestapo Officer a dope right to his face not once but twice within a minutes time! And getting away with it without being shipped off to the nearest Nazi concentration camp!
Instead of the two "dopes" just going to the place where anti-Nazi German scientist Dr. Mespelbrunn, Reginald Owens, is staying at and getting the secret information for the magnetic mine that he invented the two American "spies" for the British Empire are given a myriad of asinine and brain twisting clues, by the British Secret Service, as well as secret hand foot and nose signals! It's these signals,like a catcher and third base coach uses in baseball, that they and their German contacts uses in what seems like every ten seconds in the movie! That to the point where they become almost meaningless to anyone that's watching! This muddles things up so much in the film that by the time the Myles' finally get to meet Dr. Mespelbrunn who's being held hostage in his own house by the Gestapo you and possibly even they forgot what they were there for, the plans for the secret magnetic mine, in the first place!
There's also a nice little side plot in the movie, to make things even more confusing, with British tourist Thornley, Bruce Lester, planning to gun down the Commadaunt Col.Gerold, Frank Reicher, of the Nazi concentration camp where his wife was interned and later murdered! Thorney plans to pull this off in the middle of a standing room only Listz concert at the local opera house with hundreds of German soldiers and Gestapo agents in attendance!
P.S The movie turned out to be both the last film that Joan Crawford made for the MGM studios and Conrad Veidt's, who played a good guy for once, last movie ever! Veidt died on April 3, 1943 of a massive heart attack, probably after seeing the rushes, before the movie "Above Suspicion" was released. Also check out Basil Rathbone as the mysterious Sig Von Aschenhausen who tries so hard to be what he isn't in the movie that you instinctively know what he is as soon as you get to see him!
Despite the movies title-Beyond Suspicion-the two especially Richard Myles act so obnoxious and suspicious that it's a miracle that the Nazi's didn't suspect them of being spies as soon as they laid eyes on them. That's in Richard's in you face dislike of anything German to the extent of calling a Nazi Gestapo Officer a dope right to his face not once but twice within a minutes time! And getting away with it without being shipped off to the nearest Nazi concentration camp!
Instead of the two "dopes" just going to the place where anti-Nazi German scientist Dr. Mespelbrunn, Reginald Owens, is staying at and getting the secret information for the magnetic mine that he invented the two American "spies" for the British Empire are given a myriad of asinine and brain twisting clues, by the British Secret Service, as well as secret hand foot and nose signals! It's these signals,like a catcher and third base coach uses in baseball, that they and their German contacts uses in what seems like every ten seconds in the movie! That to the point where they become almost meaningless to anyone that's watching! This muddles things up so much in the film that by the time the Myles' finally get to meet Dr. Mespelbrunn who's being held hostage in his own house by the Gestapo you and possibly even they forgot what they were there for, the plans for the secret magnetic mine, in the first place!
There's also a nice little side plot in the movie, to make things even more confusing, with British tourist Thornley, Bruce Lester, planning to gun down the Commadaunt Col.Gerold, Frank Reicher, of the Nazi concentration camp where his wife was interned and later murdered! Thorney plans to pull this off in the middle of a standing room only Listz concert at the local opera house with hundreds of German soldiers and Gestapo agents in attendance!
P.S The movie turned out to be both the last film that Joan Crawford made for the MGM studios and Conrad Veidt's, who played a good guy for once, last movie ever! Veidt died on April 3, 1943 of a massive heart attack, probably after seeing the rushes, before the movie "Above Suspicion" was released. Also check out Basil Rathbone as the mysterious Sig Von Aschenhausen who tries so hard to be what he isn't in the movie that you instinctively know what he is as soon as you get to see him!