This is an early Jules Dassin film and already carrying various typical Jules Dassin characteristics: the ingenious plot, the great suspense, the development and deep probing of the characters, while it most of all is a Conrad Veidt film. This great actor who is nowadays almost completely forgotten was almost as dominating a character player as Emil Jannings but a totally different type: tall and superior with an eloquent style always giving an unmistakable impression of high intelligence, he excelled in spy roles and other extreme villains but also made leading parts like Gwynplaine in "The Laughing Man" and --- in "Doctor Caligari's Cabinet". Here he plays a couple of twins, one a bookseller and stamp collector in a small shop in New York, and the other the Nazi consul of the German embassy. The consuil wants to use his brother's shop for clandestine correspondence, and when the poorer brother refuses to cooperate there is a conflict, and which one of the brothers survive? The answer is Conrad Veidt.
The plot turns into a romantic melodrama, since there is a female pianust involved with the consul, a refugee who has no choice but to cooperate with the Nazis, while also his old butler plays an important and very sympathetic oand human part. It's obvious that Jules Dassin attached great importance to his character.
It is not a great film, but it is definitelty a very promising beginning for Jules Dassin, and Conrad Veidt is incomparable as usual.
The plot turns into a romantic melodrama, since there is a female pianust involved with the consul, a refugee who has no choice but to cooperate with the Nazis, while also his old butler plays an important and very sympathetic oand human part. It's obvious that Jules Dassin attached great importance to his character.
It is not a great film, but it is definitelty a very promising beginning for Jules Dassin, and Conrad Veidt is incomparable as usual.