Merle Oberon plays a Norwegian resistance figure in a small town, married to a Nazi commandant. When his superiors begin to suspect her, the Allies land an assassin to kill him -- an assassin who happens to be her former lover.
Direction
Arzner centers female agency in a male-dominated genre.
Acting
Oberon performs three roles: wife, spy, and woman in love.
Production
Hollywood's Norway: suspiciously sunny, conveniently generic.
Director
Dorothy Arzner
Merle Oberon
Nicole Larsen
Brian Aherne
Capt. Allan Lowell
Carl Esmond
Maj. Paul Dichter
Isobel Elsom
Rose Lindstrom
Fritz Leiber
Dr. Aanrud
Erville Alderson
Soren
Erik Rolf
Ole
Reinhold Schünzel
Col. Kurt von Elser
Richard Ryen
Dr. Hoff
Lewis Wilson
Dr. Kleinich
Fern Emmett
Dress Designer (uncredited)
Byron Foulger
Norwegian Shopkeeper (uncredited)
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
Nazi Captain (uncredited)
John Elliott
Norwegian patient
Greta Granstedt
Girl assistant
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Arzner was the only woman directing studio features in 1940s Hollywood, and she quietly queered heteronormative narratives through performance and disguise.
This was Arzner's final film before her 27-year retirement from Hollywood, making it an accidental career epitaph on women surviving male systems.
US
