- After three British Agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent when their duty to the mission conflicts with their consciences.
- World War 1. Novelist Edgar Brodie is shocked to discover that, according to the newspapers, he has died. This turns out to be a cover for a clandestine operation British Intelligence has for him. As Richard Ashenden he is to go to Switzerland to track down and eliminate a German agent who is undermining British operations in the Middle East. When he gets to his Swiss hotel, he discovers that there's a Mrs Ashenden and she's in his room.—grantss
- 1916. On leave from military service on the continent, famed British novelist Edgar Brodie, without any previous notification or warning, returns to England to discover in the news that he has been declared dead. The reason: the British Secret Service wants to recruit him for a special undercover assignment under the assumed name of Richard Ashenden. The assignment: locate an unknown German spy thought to be in Switzerland, one who is making plans to travel to the Middle East via Constantinople and aid the enemy forces in battle. "Ashenden" is to do whatever is required to prevent the spy from boarding any such train. He is given two assistants: a womanizing man nicknamed the General assigned to kill the spy, and a young woman (whom Ashenden does not discover until he checks into his hotel in Switzerland) named Elsa Carrington, who is to masquerade as his wife. Despite Elsa being "married", she is being wooed by the charming American tourist Robert Marvin, whose pursuit she and Ashenden both see as harmless fun. Not a trained agent herself, Elsa has embarked on this assignment to add a little excitement into her life, but things change when murder becomes a reality, which threatens them being able to carry out the assignment and which may jeopardize their own lives.—Huggo
- In 1916, the British Captain Edgar Brodie returns home and is assigned by a superior that faked his funeral to work as a spy in Switzerland. He receives the identity of Richard Ashenden and is introduced to the womanizer killer The General that will meet him in the Hotel Excelsior in Switzerland to assassin a German spy. On arrival, Ashenden is surprised to know that his wife, arranged by his superior, is waiting for him in his room. When he enters the room, the hotel guest Robert Marvin is flirting with his beautiful wife, Mrs. Elsa Ashenden. When Marvin leaves the room, he learns that Elsa accepted the job because of the money. Ashenden goes with the General to a church to meet the organist, who is their contact, to learn who the German agent is, but they find him dead with a button in his hand. They head to the casino to meet Elsa and accidentally they find that the button belongs to a man named Caypor. They start a conversation with him and convince Caypor to climb a mountain with them. They leave Elsa with his wife, Mrs. Caypor, and while on the top of the mountain, the General pushes off a cliff and kills Caypor. But on the next morning, they receive a telegram informing that Caypor was not the agent. Now they have to find the agent while Elsa decides to quit her job. They go to a chocolate factory and discover the identity of the German spy, but he is on the run.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- During the first world war, novelist Edgar Brodie is sent to Switzerland by the Intelligence Service. He has to kill a German agent. During the mission he meets a fake general first and then Elsa Carrington who helps him in his duty.—Claudio Sandrini <pulp99@geocities.com>
- It is May 10, 1916, London, after the beginning of the First World War. A somber group files past a casket surrounded by candles. The butler sees everyone out, locks the door, then takes down the casket, which is empty.
At a British intelligence office in the middle of an air raid, an officer in uniform enters with a newspaper that seems to announce his own death. The officer, a writer by profession (John Gielgud), is given false passports with the name Ashenden and introduced to an assistant (Peter Lorre, whose character goes by the nickname General), and is told to proceed in disguise to Switzerland, Hotel Excelsior, and await further instructions.
The instructions are to identify a German undercover agent who is at the hotel and about to leave Switzerland for Istanbul, and to prevent the German agent from reaching his destination by any means necessary.
In Switzerland an old man buys a bar of chocolate, opens it, and reads a hidden message saying that a British spy is expected to arrive at the Hotel Excelsior.
Ashenden checks into the hotel and learns that "Mrs Ashenden" (Madeleine Carroll) had arrived the day before. He goes to the rooms reserved for the couple and finds Mrs Ashenden in conversation with an American, Mr Robert Marvin (Robert Young), who has been insinuating himself to her. Mr Marvin leaves, and the fake Ashenden couple have their initial conversations to get acquainted.
When the General comes in, he and Ashenden head for a church in Langenthal to meet its organist, a supposed double agent, to get more information; however, they find the organist dead at the organ, with a special type of torn away button in his fist.
Back at the hotel they learn that Mrs Ashenden has gone with another gentleman (Robert) to the casino. Soon after the four meet up, Ashenden and The General are surprised when the torn button appears to come from the coat sleeve of a British tourist whom Ashenden met earlier at the hotel, supposedly identifying the tourist as the killer of the organist. The group, including Marvin, have dinner at the same table, and meet the German wife of the British tourist, who says this trip is the first time she has ever been out of Germany.
Ashenden and the General improvise a heated bet over which of them is a better mountain hiker. They convince the British tourist (Mr Caypor) to go up a nearby mountain the next day as their guide, where they plan to murder him. Mrs Ashenden, dancing with Ashenden, expresses excitement about finishing off Mr Caypor, but Ashenden is repulsed.
Ashenden has misgivings in participating in a murder, and turns away from the climb, but the General continues up the mountain and pushes Mr Caypor off a cliff. Simultaneously, Caypor's dog, back home with Mrs Caypor, Mrs Ashenden and Robert, howls woefully, and it is clear that tragedy has befallen its master.
Back at the hotel word comes that they have identified the wrong man and thus murdered an innocent Briton. The General laughs this off, but it causes consternation and conflict between the Ashendens, he taking the view that he was on an assignment in wartime, she that the murder of an innocent is too high a price to pay even in wartime. This moral conflict is a continuing source of much anguish for them both, who were otherwise much attracted to each other.
While the Ashendens struggle to come to terms with their deed, the General has snooped around and found that the chocolate factory is a center for spy messages. He talks Ashenden into going there to try to get more information from the boyfriend of one of the hotel maids, who has a job at the factory.
Mrs Ashenden, feeling distraught that she's lost Mr Ashenden to duty, decides to resign alone from her spy assignment and separate herself from her fake husband. Having no special place to go, she decides to join Marvin on the next leg of his train trip.
At the chocolate factory Ashenden and the General discover they've been fingered as British spies. To escape the summoned police, they pull a fire alarm to create chaos, succeed in evading arrest, and receive a telegram that identifies Marvin as the agent.
Phoning the hotel, they find Mrs Ashenden has gone, bringing suspicion that she's a double agent.
They manage to get to the train station and warn Mrs Ashenden that Marvin is their target. She agrees to resume her spy duties by pretending to be romantically interested in Marvin. They get on a train headed for a country at war against Britain.
As they finally confront Marvin in a compartment, where he admits being a German agent, British planes attack the train, producing a train wreck. Marvin is mortally wounded, the General is shot dead, and Mr and Mrs Ashenden, now in love with each other, are able to return to England without having had to physically murder anyone. A brief epilogue follows, showing the triumph of British forces in the Eastern (Turkish) front
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
