1934 - BRITISH AGENT - confused romance/thriller

Leslie Howard is the very British agent working to undermine the Russian Revolution.  He hopes to bring a more sympathetic government into power that will support the British during World War I.  Kay Johnson is a Russian revolutionary who Howard falls in love with.  Unbeknown to Howard, Johnson is a double agent who will betray Howard in order to advance the cause of the Communist Revolution.

This is one confusing mess of a film.  The screenplay is so convoluted it's impossible to tell if this film is pro Russian Revolution or anti Russian Revolution.

Kay Francis the love interest for Leslie Howard playing the Russian agent is an interesting choice.  She might have been a little miscast. Francis was from Oklahoma and she didn't even attempt a European accent.  Future "Joker" villain Caesar Romero from the original Adam West version of Batman is a diplomat working with Howard.  The rest of the cast is made up of  the usual Warner Brothers stock company.

The film was directed by filmmaker pro Michael Curtiz but even he couldn't do much with this confusing mess of story elements and mismatched actors to make it coherent.

The film was written by Laird Houston Doyle and Roland Pertwee, the running time is a short 81 minutes.