Word: wengraf
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...former employer, a beautiful Polish countess, some bright epigrammatic dialogue, and an array of skillfully drawn diplomatic officials. Particularly clever use is made of the contrasting personalities of the pompous, victimized, British Ambassador (superbly played by Walter Hampden) and the disdainful German Ambassador (equally well played by John Wengraf), who keeps insisting to his "juvenile delinquent" colleagues that the information they are purchasing is accurate...
James Mason, with his polished playing of the poker-faced valet, helps iron out some of the dialogue wrinkles in this cloak & dagger drama. Also lending a bit of credulity to the proceedings: Oscar Karlweis as Moyzisch and John Wengraf as his boss, Ambassador Franz von Papen...
...best Broadway manner. It is a vivid spy melodrama in which everything seems a little more ominous for being so much of the moment. It refurbishes old situations with such new gadgets as Geiger counters; it endows standard roles with new wrinkles. The Russian spy (suavely played by John Wengraf) is a cynical worldling whose motive is money, not Marx; the chief intelligence officer (winningly played by Lee Tracy) is a humorously rueful fellow who has a horror of muffing his assignment...
...extras, for once, look like soldiers. Reason: they are soldiers who were training at Camp Young, Calif., near which the picture was made. Other members of the cast notable for their light, incisive realism are Kurt Krueger as the cold Nazi ace, Rex Ingram as the dignified Sudanese, John Wengraf as a treacherous Nazi major, Richard Nugent as a British doctor, Carl Harbord as an English ex-typesetter who likes poetry. Even more gratifying is J. Carrol Naish as the innocent, bewildered Italian prisoner, shooting the works in an entirely new kind of part for him, after years of playing...
...become a cross between John's Other Wife and Mary Marlin, the result, no doubt, of Miss Hayes' extensive radio appearances in recent years. In her love scenes she is hungrily abetted by Stanio Braggiotti, who does his best with the colorless Raoul. The Nazi officers, particularly John Wengraf and Tonio Selwart, are excellent and do their best to maintain the high degree of bestiality that is the stage and screen trademark of the Dirty...
| 1 |