STATE THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 142, 12 March 1938, Page 15

STATE THEATRE

* “Lancer Spy” Unheralded by any extraordinary barrage of publicity, 20th Century-Fox’s “Lancer Spy,” which began yesterday at the State Theatre, turns put to be one of the most pleasant surprises I have encountered in the motion picture field in recent months. This production proves that with a good cast and a good director even the most familiar story can be given ■vitality and distinction. There is all the

suspence, romance and hair-breadth escapes that one expects, but does not always find, in espionage melodrama. Above all, there is a truly notable performance by George Sanders. He adopts a dual role, playing the part of-an English officer who poses as his Prussian double, a pris-

oner-of-war, and so becomes a spy in Berlin. Dual roles are nothing new on the screen, but: few have been played 'with such subtlety or complete conviction as this one. There is one sequence in particular which is the measure of Sanders’s great talent. The German officer is confined in an English prison. In a room next door is the English officer, his double, who has been placed there to study the German. For several weeks the Englishman watches through a mirror device, and gradually adopts the mannerisms and poses of the other. That is clever acting, but what is even more clever is the fact that when the period of training and study is over and Sanders is sent on his mission to Berlin, he is not just a replica of the other character he has been playing. In fact, he really creates three separate characters —the English George Sanders, the German George Sanders, and the English George Sanders disguised as the German George Sanders. All this is part of the Marthe McKenna story about the Englishman whose darjjjg feat in securing the plans of a German offensive is supposed to be responsible for the Allies having won the war. Naturally, a woman comes into it. She is that very familiar heroine, the counter-espionage agent, torn between duty to her country and love for the spy she should expose. A great deal of intelligence and revealing detail is to be found in the direction of Gregory Ratoff and several of the supporting roles, notably those of Maurice Moscovitch, Joseph Schildkraut and Sig Rumann. As the heroine, Dolores del Rio expresses the emotion of surprise very ably, but not much else. The disappointmejjt of the film is Peter Lorre, who has hardly more than, a walk-on role. Yet these points should not weigh greatly against your enjoyment of what is otherwise almost the best film of its type since “I Was a Spy.”