LANCER SPY (1937)

Though already seen in a dozen films, 20th/Fox tacked on a special end credit ‘Introducing’ 31-yr-old George Sanders in this WWI spy drama.  A sort of copycat PRISONER OF ZENDA , it sees British Officer Sanders take the place of wounded lookalike German Officer Sanders, crossing the border to steal secret Axis war plans.  With decent production values and a strong cast (Dolores Del Rio; Peter Lorre; Sig Rumann; Joseph Schildkraut; Lionel Atwill), plus rising Fox scripter Philip Dunne, it ought to make a superior B-pic.  But there’s little adventure or surprise once we hit enemy territory; and even less chemistry between Sanders & Del Rio.  (They tussle over German accents instead of each other; he’d improve; she’d never try again.)  Actor Gregory Ratoff, in his second directing gig brings little to the party (he’d hardly improve in thirty attempts), but the real blame lies in a lack of story development.  In too much of a rush to fix things?  (See our Double-Bill.*)  After two years of medium sized roles, Sanders would make his mark in CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY/’39, on loan to Warners with a much improved German accent.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *The David Selznick/Ronald Colman PRISONER OF ZENDA, out a month earlier, must have been the film they were trying to beat.  Hard to see Sanders in for Colman; his part would have been that scallywag of a villain Douglas Fairbanks Jr. played, Rupert of Hentzau.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/10/prisoner-of-zenda-1937-1952.html