Three Faces East (1930)

Set during WWI, a German spy (Constance Bennett) is sent to infiltrate the household of a British Admiral (William Holden, no not that one) to work with the household's butler (Erich von Stroheim), who is also a German spy, to obtain vital secrets about American transport ships crossing the Atlantic. Based on a 1918 play by Anthony Paul Kelly and directed by Roy Del Ruth (DUBARRY WAS A LADY). This early pre-code (although the raciest it gets is when von Stroheim fondles Bennett's undwear) talkie isn't very cinematic and its stagebound origins are quite evident. Not only in the talkiness of the film but in the broad and often stiff acting. Bennett is quite lovely but the acting honors go to von Stroheim whose Teutonic furor brings life to an often stilted film. If you've a fondness for early sound films, you should enjoy this but there's not much here for everybody else. With Anthony Bushell and William Courtenay.