18 Mar The Two-Headed Spy
The Two-Headed Spy, WWII Movie starring Jack Hawkins and Gia Scala.
(1958) A General in the German army is actually a British agent, a mole since the end of World War I. In charge of military supplies, he is one of Hitler’s closest advisers.
This is a British film and stars English actor Jack Hawkins as General Alex Schottland. In the opening credits we read: “… This picture is dedicated to one of the men, Col. A. P. Scotland, O.B.E. British Intelligence Service, whose exploits over the past half century inspired this story.” Scotland was a British intelligence officer who served as technical advisor. According to what I have read, he did work undercover in Germany during World War II, but this was not his story.
It is certainly possible that such a thing could have happened. After all, Kim Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence during World War II who was outed in 1963 as a spy for the Soviet Union.
The Two-Headed Spy was suspenseful and easy to watch. It was interesting when the characters spoke of, for example, the failed plot of kill the Führer. Jack Hawkins’ accomplice was a beautiful singer/spy played by actress Gia Scala. According to Wikipedia, her severe emotional problems led to suicide 14 years after she was in this movie. She was only 38.
An uncredited Michael Caine played a Gestapo agent, but I never caught him in action.
The movie clip shown below is the scene where the General’s friend and ally is tortured by the Gestapo. It’s interesting that Scotland, the advisor, was commandant of “The London Cage,” a British Military Intelligence facility where German prisoners were housed and reportedly tortured.
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