Martin Schulz (Paul Lukas) and Max Eisenstein (Morris Carnovsky) are business partners. Martin moves to Germany with all of his family except for his eldest son Heinrich (Peter van Eyck), who stays behind to look after things in San Francisco with Max. Meanwhile, Max's daughter Griselle (KT Stevens) travels to Germany to become an actress. The families are very close and Heinrich and Griselle have future plans to marry. Once Baron von Friesche (Carl Esmond) appears on the scene, Martin goes through a change and is indoctrinated into the Nazi lifestyle. This means rejecting his Jewish friend, Max, and his friend's daughter Griselle.
The story develops through letter correspondence between the two friends, Martin and Max. There are several stand out scenes, my favourites being the performance at the theatre when Griselle disobeys the Nazi authorities and the following chase that ensues in order to catch her. The acting is good, particularly from Carl Esmond. You just know that there is a nasty ulterior motive lurking behind everything that he says and does. Once Martin begins to receive coded letters, suspicion is aroused by the German censors and it's a matter of time before something happens to him... There is a twist at the end.
The story develops through letter correspondence between the two friends, Martin and Max. There are several stand out scenes, my favourites being the performance at the theatre when Griselle disobeys the Nazi authorities and the following chase that ensues in order to catch her. The acting is good, particularly from Carl Esmond. You just know that there is a nasty ulterior motive lurking behind everything that he says and does. Once Martin begins to receive coded letters, suspicion is aroused by the German censors and it's a matter of time before something happens to him... There is a twist at the end.