MovieChat Forums > The Two-Headed Spy (1959) Discussion > Eureka ! CHRISTIANNE FOUND A COPY !

Eureka ! CHRISTIANNE FOUND A COPY !

posted 18 years ago by Arthur_2323
3 replies | jump to latest

Congratulations, Christianne, you're a miracle worker ! I hadn't even gotten beyond square one - my e-mail to Bob bounced back, and the bpm123 site link wouldn't work either. I was about to give it another try when I read your post. (Link to Christianne's post: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052327/board/flat/47004062.)

You and your dad now possess the only copy of The Two Headed Spy known to us here at IMDb - for all practical purposes, the only known copy anywhere on earth ! That's a big responsibility: even though only a handful of us remember it, we know it's a great WWII spy movie, and only you can answer our questions. My own memories of the film's middle and final parts are amazingly good even now (I paid full attention after watching Felix Aylmer's horrible death by torture.), but the beginning is a blur, and I've always wanted to know the following:

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1. Who was Alex Schottland ? What was his history ? I have a vague notion he was German, or Austrian, or something, before he became a British agent, but the real facts are hopelessly obscure, and I'm curious to know. (So is Shopnowandsave, and so are most other viewers, probably.)

2. What was the connection between Schottland and Lili Geyr (Gia Scala) during the first part of the movie, before they revealed themselves to each other as allied agents ? I was only 8 years old when I saw this film and, beautiful as she was, I just have no early recollections of Gia Scala whatsoever. ("Silly grown-up mushy stuff", I would have thought, and promptly forgotten all about her.)

3. "Adolf Hitler, the Monster" - what do you and your dad think of Kenneth Griffith's portrayal of him ? Was he truly terrifying, or risibly florid and campy ? I was scared stiff, but I was only 8 !

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Again, well done, Christianne - hope you and your dad enjoy the show.

[–] christianne3 18 years ago

Arthur,
I would try Bob's Movies (www.bpm123.net) again. Their e-mail is [email protected]. The woman I was e-mailing is Spring, and even today I ordered a couple of more movies from her.

About your questions, I hate to give anything away in that I'm sure that you will soon be able to get a copy for yourself but, Schottland (who advised on the movie) was English and German but chose to stay in Germany despite having his family in England think that he was a traitor. He had been there for 25 years when the movie started. Schottland was attracted to Lili Geyr but would not become involved because he felt he would be vulnerable if he did. Personally I find the "Hitler" in this movie to be funny because, obviously the British were portraying him as an absolute nutcase to an extreme. It is not really a realistic portrayal of a true monster.

Bye the way, I found the torture scene extremely hard to take. I could not believe how horribly realistic it seemed. Also, I found the movie to be quite gripping despite some lack of background.

Hope this helped. Don't give up on trying to get the movie from Bob's.

I give all credit for finding this movie to Nectarus. If it weren't for him I don't know when I would have ever found this film.

[–] Arthur_2323 18 years ago

Thanks for your encouragement, Christianne. I just sent another e-mail to Bob's ("Attention: Spring") using your corrected address - [email protected]. The first address I used was wrong - "[email protected]" - no wonder it bounced back at me.

Your comments on the film were fascinating. Regarding the portrayal of "Hitler", I sort of expected you'd react the way you did; after all, when you're 8 years old you're far more innocent about such things. Be that as it may, I'm looking forward to this very much. If I laugh at Kenneth Griffith's Hitler, well, he was certainly a "monster", but unfortunately he was also a real human being, not a demon - we all have to grow up sometime !

(BTW: Necturus, I'm not forgetting your part in this, obviously. But let's see me actually get my copy before I start shooting my mouth off ...)

[–] Arthur_2323 18 years ago

Update, 8/7/06: I got the film, and everything worked out perfectly. Necturus, Bob's Movies really was a great find: their prices are good (Imagine, just $20.00 for The Two Headed Spy - Bob's might be the only place on earth that has it !), the quality was good (DVD copied from VHS, but the original VHS recording was sharp), and it arrived in double-quick time. I would strongly recommend Bob's Movies, everybody; if you're looking for a hard-to-find film, check out their enormous archive.

I remembered this movie so well, it was downright scary - dialogue, events, the way people tilted their heads ... I was amazed at my memory ! But I'd completely forgotten the most important dialogue of all, a long conversation between Hawkins and Aylmer near the start of the film, so watching the movie again was very important to me - quite a load off my mind, you bet. Many thanks again, Necturus and all you other posters. (Let's go over the film itself on more specific threads, it's more fun that way.)