Basil Rathbone, Master of Stage and Screen: International Lady

The setting is London in 1941. During a bombing raid, Tim Hanley (George Brent), a lawyer for the American consulate, leads his neighbor, Norwegian concert singer Carla Nillson (Ilona Massey), to a swank bomb shelter in the basement of the Barkley Hotel. Carla notices that someone is following them. Reggie Oliver (Rathbone), a music critic, joins Carla and Tim at their table. When Tim sees the man who had been following them, he confronts him and insists on going to Scotland Yard to clear the matter up. Reggie takes Carla home and arrives at Scotland Yard a few minutes later. Reggie is in reality an inspector with Scotland Yard. The Yard suspects Carla Nillson of being a spy, and was keeping an eye on Hanley because he was spending time with Carla. Sgt. Moulton followed Hanley as a ruse to get him to Scotland Yard for questioning without detention or arrest. Much to Reggie Oliver's surprise, he learns that Tim Hanley is in reality an FBI agent who has been spending time with Miss Nillson in the hope of finding evidence of her espionage.

Scotland Yard knows that Carla has given concerts near hidden airdrones, and that shortly afterwards the airdrones were bombed and planes destroyed. The enemy is trying to break the supply of planes from America. Hanley and Oliver have the same mission: to find evidence that proves Carla Nillson is a spy. They each hope to trace through Carla Nillson the "higher-ups" who are responsible for sabotaged planes, but they don't want to work together as a team. In fact, Hanley arranges an American visa and plane ticket to New York for Carla and whisks her off to the airport, leaving Reggie Oliver waiting in his car for her outside the American consulate.

Not to be outsmarted, Reggie catches up with Tim and Carla in Lisbon, where they have a two-hour layover. His cover is that he's been appointed special correspondent in New York.

In New York Reggie and Tim say good-bye to Carla, who is visiting Mr. and Mrs. Grenner, a chocolate manufacturer from Switzerland. The Grenner household is a hotbed of spies, including a Colonel Wentzel of the German army (played by George Zucco) who poses as the butler Webster.

At the FBI office, Tim introduces Reggie to Sewell (played by Clayton Moore, who later became famous as The Lone Ranger). Reggie doesn't understand a word that is said.

A few days later, at the Grenner house, Carla gives a concert that is broadcast over the radio; she performs new music containing a hidden code. The message in the code tells the location of cargo ships carrying airplane parts. Both Tim Hanley and Reggie Oliver are at the concert--Tim as an invited guest and Reggie disguised as a waiter. Reggie figures out that the code is in the music when he hears Grenner tell Webster to lock it up. Deftly he switches the music and passes it to Tim Hanley, who copies the code and then places the music back in the living room.

Back at the FBI office, Tim and Reggie learn that the bombing planes that left Canada have been forced down in Greenland due to engine trouble, and the next batch of flying fortresses are scheduled to leave on July 5th. Then Tim gets a call from Carla, inviting him to her concert July 4th. So far neither Reggie nor Tim have been able to break the code, but that night, as Carla sings, Reggie figures it out. The location of the Champlain Granary is given in the code--Reggie goes to check it out.

After the concert Tim and Carla have a date to watch the fireworks display from the roof garden of Carla's hotel. She knows that Webster, having learned that Tim is an FBI agent, intends to shoot Tim from a neighboring rooftop. Carla realizes that she loves Tim and cannot betray him. Throwing herself in front of him to protect him, she is shot. While Carla is rushed to the hospital, Tim follows the shooter (Webster) to the Granary. Reggie is already inside observing and listening. Tim climbs in through a window on the roof and Reggie sees him. One by one they take out enemy agents. In a climactic scene Tim saves Reggie from suffocation in a flax chute and they arrest the bad guys.

A suspenseful spy drama, "International Lady" is also liberally sprinkled with humor. The exchange of slang expressions and the confusion it causes is amusing. Whenever either Hanley or Oliver says something that the other doesn't understand, the other asks "Translation?" Reggie Oliver quotes Oscar Wilde, saying, "We have everything in common with America except language."

Cast		Credits
Basil Rathbone.................Reggie Oliver George Brent........................Tim Hanley Ilona Massey.....................Carla Nillson Gene Lockhart.....................Mr. Grenner George Zucco............................Webster Francis Pierlot........................Dr. Rowan Martin Kosleck.............................Bruner Charles D. Brown.........................Tetlow Marjorie Gateson..............Mrs. Grenner Leyland Hodgson............Sgt. Moulton Clayton Moore.............................Sewell Gordon de Main...........................Denby Frederick Worlock..................Sir Henry Jack Mulhall..........................Desk Clerk Ralph Dunn......................................Don Frank Dawson..............................Dawes William Austin..........................Stranger Anthony Kemble-Cooper.............Tony		Production Co. .............. Edward Small Productions Producer............................Edward Small Assoc. Producer.............Stanley Logan Director................................Tim Whelan Screenplay...............Howard Estabrook (based on story by Jack DeWitt, E. Lloyd Sheldon) Cinematographer....................Hal Mohr Editors...........................William Claxton Grant Whytock Musical Director................Lud Gluskin Original Music.........Lucien Moraweck Art Director......John DuCasse Schulze Costume Design..........Gwen Wakeling Released by United Artists

Images on this page and page two are from the film "International Lady," copyright Edward Small Productions.

International Lady (1941), 102 minutes, b&w

Cast

Credits

International Lady
(1941), 102 minutes, b&w