Determined, independent Bridie Quilty comes of age in 1944 Ireland thinking all Englishmen are devils. Her desire to join the IRA meets no encouragement, but a German spy finds her easy to recruit. We next find her working in a pub near a British military prison, using her sex appeal in the service of the enemy. But chance puts a really vital secret into her hands, leading to a chase involving Bridie, a British officer who's fallen for her, a German agent unknown to them both, and the police...paralleled by Bridie's own internal conflicts.
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I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Deborah Kerr plays an impressionable Irish gal who can't wait to lash out at Britain, but her first negative, naive traipse through England forces to her grow a bit and reconsider. This movie is three parts Hitchcock, one part noir and one part wartime propaganda. Think of it as "Uppity Irish know-it-all descends 39 steps." The noir aspect is the best stuff here; the cinematography being much, much finer than the script. The camera work is way above average. As with Hitchcock, the shenanigans continue in an arbitrary way, daisy-chaining through an arbitrary number (too many) of arbitrary intrigues, in different (arbitrary) locations, until the thing is long enough to end. The quality of the dramatic engagement is rather low. In the films clumsiest moments, the sequences require a distracting number of Kerr's voice-over "thoughts.' Perhaps the most unusual part of the movie is when ownership of a dead sympathizer falls to Kerr at the worst possible time, and she is forced to devise a ruse which the movie pursues to a rather morbid end.Just how Trevor Howard can make anyone abandon their stereotypes of Britons is a head scratcher. He plays a stiff, humorless, passionless mainstream Brit. He's a complete non-entity. Howard flouncing down a stairway, arms aflutter, is one of the most risible moments ever put on film.I confuse scenes from this with "I Know Where I'm Going" (also about an insufferable traveler, also unsuccessful as to why audiences should identify with/endure its unpleasant heroine) and "A Canterbury Tale" (also about travels through England, with ravishing imagery). It's gone from your mind the second it's over for the usual reason; its conceits are better than its concerns.
Isn't she just absolutely gorgeous! This is an amazing example of film noir that also manages to include a good deal of humour - ironically about times and events that were not particularly humorous. Debora Kerrs character is a beautiful and somewhat naive young lady - but decidedly full of spirit! and operating on the philosophy that 'my enemy's enemy must be my friend'. The film is supported with the introduction of a wide range of characters as the film unfolds. Viewed many times, I could always do so again. For location buffs - The English town scenes are filmed at Dunster (Somerset)- The medieval yarn market is clearly visible in the background, and I adore her assertion that, 'it all depends which side I'm being neutral on!' Perfect.
Deborah Kerr is a determined Irish lass who hates the British and Oliver Cromwell in "I See a Dark Stranger," a 1946 film also starring Trevor Howard and Raymond Huntley. There are also a couple of names in the cast worth noting and watching for: Celia Johnson (The Ladykillers) and Joan Hickson, a well-known Miss Marple is uncredited as a hotel manager.Kerr also narrates the thoughts of her character, Bridey, as she leaves her small town for Dublin in 1944, when she turns 21, determined to join the Irish Republican Army. She is rebuffed but eventually recruited by a German spy. Bridey goes to work at a pub near a British prison for the military. She winds up with a valuable document and, since her contact is dead, she has no idea what to do with it. The Germans are after her and later, so are the bumbling police. On top of this, she has a British officer (Howard) who likes her and seems to be following her around.If you're British or Irish and watch this film, especially if you know something about the British and Irish in World War II, this film will resonate with you in a way that it cannot for Americans. Ireland did not support the British in the war; they remained neutral. That was the country itself. The people in it were divided. The militant part of the IRA bombed different parts of England with the help of the Nazis, for instance. Also, Eamon DeValera, for all the neutrality, didn't want Nazi agents in Ireland and had them arrested."I See a Dark Stranger" vacillates between comedy and drama easily, aided by Kerr's dead serious performance which makes some of the moments even funnier. Bridey has no sense of humor. She's great because an advance by a man doesn't just insult her - it infuriates her - and all of her emotions are that way. The last moment of the film made me laugh out loud. Her thought process told in narration is wonderful. In this movie, she reminds me very much of Maureen O'Hara who often had that same no-nonsense air about her. Trevor Howard gives a performance which offsets Kerr's intensity very well.A young beauty when she made this, this film apparently brought Kerr to the attention of Hollywood as it should have. If you're a fan of hers, don't miss this delightful early performance in this very good movie.
Enjoyed seeing how young Deborah Kerr appeared in this picture at the age of twenty-four years. Deborah plays the role as Birdie Quilty who works in her families pub in England and heard all kinds of stories told by people who visited the pub about how Ireland fought against the British years ago and she starts to form a hated toward the English Government. Birdie becomes of age and wants to go to Dublin, Ireland to live and work and she meets up with some very strange people who have listened to Birdie talk about England and they decide to utilize her hatred towards the British Nation for their own benefits. Birdie finds herself in some very difficult situations until she meets up with a British Lt. David Baynes, (Trevor Howard) who seems to fall madly in love with Birdie at first seeing her and on other dates, it becomes serious. However, Birdie has so many dark secrets that she does not want to show any affections towards David and this still does not stop David from following her from one country to another. This is a very great film with plenty of funny moments and at other times can be very dark and mysterious. Enjoy.