drystyx
Any movie with a poetic title like KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR should be a real emotional, risk taking venture.Too bad such a great title is wasted on this crap.Set during the turmoil years of Russia when liberators made a muck out of a revolution against aristocrats, this should have been a great movie. But it fails miserably.Not only is it predictable and contrived, it would have been predictable and contrived for the 193os when it was made.We never buy into the guy risking everything for this plain Jane Marlene Dietrich, and it looks stupid when she stares down a hundred men with her presence, Even a beautiful woman would be lucky to have a few stop for her, but it looks laughable when a plain girl makes a hundred cutthroats do it. The epitome of the "women's woman", it looks worse than silly when the women are the ones who drag her off. One of the worst scenes in movie History.This is how not to write or direct a movie. It is not only contrived, but absolutely preachy. Horribly written, this is one of the most expository piles of garbage you will ever see.Pure Hollywood cliché all the way.
gerdeen-1
It takes place in Russia, but otherwise this film is a long way from "The Scarlet Empress." Marlene Dietrich, playing an aristocrat who is targeted by the Bolsheviks, does not display her usual tough persona. She's warm, human, almost innocent, not to mention gorgeous. No wonder so many of the male characters take great risks and even betray their beliefs to help her. Robert Donat's character, the man who wins her heart, is a British agent operating under deep cover, originally assigned to infiltrate radical groups in Czarist Russia. Caught up in World War I and the Russian Revolution, he is cut off from contact with his spy bosses for years. Alone and then with his lady love, he has a remarkable series of adventures. The story is sweeping, fast-paced and intelligent, making "Knight Without Armour" one of the best movies in English about this turbulent period in Russian history. As some other commentators have noted, it is not propagandistic. Czarist Russia is shown as an often unjust and corrupt place, but also tormented by mindless radical terrorism. The Bolsheviks who later seize power are a mix of idealists, thugs and fanatics, with the fanatics on their way to gaining the upper hand. You don't have to care about Russia to enjoy this movie. If you like intelligent thrills, you ought to see it.
Richard Green
As usual, seeing this film via TCM or Turner Classic Movies was a most enjoyable experience. The subtext of "Knight ..." is that every known revolution is an entirely messy affair. Entirely.The story is told in a rather straight-forward fashion and for most fans it will only augment their affection for, or resentment against, the female lead -- Marlene Dietrich. Like certain other stars of the cinema in the 1930s, she is always really just Marlene, take it or leave it alone. It works well in this mad adventure of a Russian Countess who awakes one morning to discover her world has crumbled.The scene where she is confronted by a mob of revolutionaries, on her own beautifully manicured lawn, and without so much as one member of her staff there to speak up for her, is amazingly effective. It works and it works well in a fairly understated and yet unambiguous way.Robert Donat, always one of my personal favorites, does yeoman's work.He's the British secret agent who speaks Russian like a native and is clever enough to adapt to almost any situation. He is brilliant in this role ( and it is understood after the fact that Dietrich insisted that he not be replaced when he suffered a bad asthma attack as the production was just getting under way ).All these decades later, those of us who are not so conversant with the historical basis of the Russian Revolution will probably be shocked by the casual slaughters that both the Reds, and the Whites indulged in.There's much to recommend in this fine film and the Russian music that gets salted in here and there is tremendously emotional and workable.Flat out, I really liked this rickety old movie and I could have used another fifteen minutes of Dietrich and Donat, no problem !! Eight of ten stars for the intrigue and this beguiling romance.
Neil Doyle
No matter that the world is crumbling around her, MARLENE DIETRICH is always ready for her close-up. She gets plenty of them in KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR, a sort of poor man's "Dr. Zhivago" with overtones of "The 39 Steps" and other such thrillers thrown in.ROBERT DONAT is the dashing hero and he looks fine, although it is said that he was already suffering badly from the asthma that would eventually kill him years later. It helps to have some background on this subject before watching because the film gets off to a murky start about opposing forces in Russia and Donat being asked to become a British spy and assuming the identity of a Russian.The first big action scene is just one of many explosions along the way, as Donat decides to help Dietrich escape from the revolutionaries around them who are brutally bent on killing each other.I was too tired to watch the whole movie and will have to wait to see how it all turns out the next time it airs on TCM.Marlene Dietrich's fans will see her looking her glorious best throughout all the strife and turmoil of the Russian Revolution. Interesting to note that this was Miklos Rozsa's first assignment as a composer. He makes use of lively Russian folk tunes throughout.
AD
