The Two-Headed Spy *** (1958, Jack Hawkins, Gia Scala, Alexander Knox, Felix Aylmer, Laurence Naismith, Donald Pleasence, Kenneth Griffith, Walter Hudd, Erik Schumann, Edward Underdown, Geoffrey Bayldon) – Classic Movie Review 13,950

Director Andre de Toth’s 1958 black and white British spy thriller film The Two-Headed Spy is written by blacklisted writers Michael Wilson (credited as James O’Donnell) and Alfred Levitt (uncredited), based on the story Britain’s Two-Headed Spy by J Alvin Kugelmass.

It stars Jack Hawkins and Gia Scala along with Erik Schumann, Alexander Knox, Felix Aylmer, Laurence Naismith, Donald Pleasence, Kenneth Griffith, Walter Hudd, Edward Underdown, Geoffrey Bayldon, and Robert Crewdson.

Jack Hawkins plays General Alex Schottland, a counterfeit German infiltrating the upper echelons of the Nazi war cabinet, in this tight little melodrama ostensibly based on the true-life adventures of a British colonel during the Second World War.

Alex Schottland is a veteran British agent planted in Germany at the end of World War One, and in 1939 he is in charge of supplies in the German Army. He is urged to carry on spying by Cornaz (Felix Aylmer), his friend and fellow British agent posing as an antique dealer. In 1941 Schottland passes on information to the UK that Germany is about to invade the Soviet Union. Captain Reinisch (Erik Schumann), a Gestapo agent and Schottland’s aide, discovers that his superior has changed his name and is of British ancestry.

This intelligently scripted wartime thriller is tautly handled by director Andre de Toth and is helped a lot by the sterling work of a good British supporting cast that includes Donald Pleasence as German General Hardt, Walter Hudd as Admiral Cabaris, Laurence Naismith as General Hauser, Alexander Knox as Gestapo boss Müller and the Welsh character star Kenneth Griffith, improbably cast as Adolf Hitler. Michael Caine, aged 25, has a tiny role as a Gestapo agent.

Blacklisted writer Michael Wilson was originally credited under the pseudonym of James O’Donnell: justice finally done, if too late, Wilson (who died in 1978) won a posthumous Oscar for The Bridge on the River Kwai and was awarded the credit for Lawrence of Arabia in 1995.

Alfred Levitt was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for his communist involvements in 1951 and blacklisted. He was unemployed as a screenwriter for more than five years. His wife Helen Slote Levitt was also blacklisted in 1951.

Their credits were restored in 1999. 

Another blacklisted writer, Dalton Trumbo, was a story consultant.

It was shot in 1958 on location in London and Berlin and in Elstree Studios in Borehamwood.

Lt Colonel Alexander Scotland served as a technical advisor, but, though the film is based on a true story and Scotland was known as Schottland while serving with German forces in Africa, the film is not based on Scotland’s experiences.

Release dates: 17 November 1958 (UK) and 2 March 1959 (US).

Michael Caine starred in director Andre de Toth’s last film, the 1969 British war film Play Dirty.

Cast: Jack Hawkins as General Alex Schottland, Gia Scala as Lili Geyr, Erik Schumann as Captain Kurt Reinisch, Alexander Knox as Gestapo Leader Müller, Felix Aylmer as Cornaz, Walter Hudd as Admiral Canaris, Edward Underdown as Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Laurence Naismith as General Hauser, Geoffrey Bayldon as Dietz, Kenneth Griffith as Adolf Hitler, Michael Caine as Gestapo Agent, Martin Benson as General Wagner, Ronald Hines as German Corporal, Donald Pleasence as General Hardt, Martin Boddey as General Optiz, Victor Woolf as Secondhand Shop Owner, Robert Crewdson, Harriette Johns, Martin Benson, Richard Grey, Ronald Hines, Bernard Fox, Deering Wells, Nade Beall, Ian Colin, Desmond Roberts, Victor Fairley, W Thorp Devereux, Dudley Foster, Neill Hallett, Edward Malin, John Brooking, John Cabot.

The Two-Headed Spy is directed by Andre de Toth, runs 93 minutes, is made and released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Michael Wilson and Alfred Levitt, based on the story Britain’s Two-Headed Spy by J Alvin Kugelmass, is shot in black and white by Ted Scaife, is produced by Hal E Chester and Bill Kirby, is scored by Gerard Schurmann and Muir Mathieson (musical director), and is designed by Ivan King.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,950

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