Dark Journey-1937- Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt

The unorthodox teaming of Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt is but one of the many pleasures of the 1937 spy yarn Dark Journey. Leigh plays a Stockholm dress-shop owner during World War I, who, being a neutral, is permitted to travel unmolested to and from France. Veidt plays a supposedly disgraced German officer who is actually head of his country's secret service. The two fall in love, despite the fact that Leigh has a secret as well: she is a double agent, sympathetic towards the Allied cause. During one of Leigh's voyages to France, her ship is captured by a German U-boat. Veidt swaggers on board, threatening to sink the ship if Leigh is not turned over to him. But the circumstances reverse themselves, and Veidt finds himself Leigh's prisoner--a circumstance that is not altogether unpleasant for him. When originally released in England, Dark Journey bore the title The Anxious Years.




Dark Journey provides more ammunition -- if any is needed -- to the argument that Vivien Leigh was possibly the most stunning figure ever to appear before a camera. Leigh's beauty is sometimes taken for granted, so familiar is it to viewers of her "big" films, but seeing her in an early film like Journey makes ones appreciate anew the special manner in which her physical being captured the lens of the camera and held it a willing hostage.