Squadron Leader X (1943)

Erich Kohler (Eric Portman) is a decorated Luftwaffe pilot recruited for a daring propaganda mission in Belgium -- to drop bombs on a civilian target in Ghent and then parachute out wearing an British Royal Air Force uniform and, once on the ground, spread the story that the RAF is attacking civilian targets in the Nazi-occupied nation. Kohler, a dedicated Nazi who was educated in England and speaks unaccented English, is perfectly prepared to carry out his orders, but his mission goes awry when he immediately gets "rescued" by the Belgian underground, and put in with a group of real British flyers who are being returned to their homeland that very night. Now, with his life at risk, he must hide his real identity and fall in with them, going along for the trip to England. Once there, he tries to re-establish contact with people he knew who were sympathetic to Hitler, but discovers that those German emigres whom he could trust most are being interned. He looks up an old girlfriend (Ann Dvorak), who had some sympathy for the Hitler government, only to discover that he has begun thinking a lot more clearly about the Nazis, and for a time takes shelter with an emigre couple (Martin Miller, Beatrice Varley) whose cooperation is a result of coercion. But he needs more than shelter -- Kohler is already fearful of being caught by British intelligence, but soon learns that the German agents operating in England have orders to kill him, as well. Having failed in his mission, he is, at best, an embarrassment to the German nation, and a liability. He has no choice but to make the best escape he can, the way he knows best, into the air, and the safe neutral territory of Ireland. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi