Knight Without Armour

Knight Without Armour (styled as Knight Without Armor in some releases) is a 1937 British historical drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat. It was directed by Jacques Feyder and produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Lajos Bíró adapted by Frances Marion from the 1933 novel by James Hilton. The novel was published in the United States as Without Armour. The music score was by Miklós Rózsa, his first for a motion picture, using additional music by Tchaikovsky. Plot Englishman A. J. Fothergill (Robert Donat) is recruited by Colonel Forrester (Laurence Hanray) to spy on Russia for the British government because he can speak the language fluently. As "Peter Ouranoff", he infiltrates a revolutionary group led by Axelstein (Basil Gill). The radicals try to blow up General Gregor Vladinoff (Herbert Lomas), the father of Alexandra (Marlene Dietrich). When the attempt fails, the would-be assassin is shot, but manages to reach Peter's apartment, where he dies. For his inadvertent involvement, Peter is sent to Siberia. World War I makes Alexandra a widow and brings the Bolsheviks to power, freeing Peter and Axelstein. When the Russian Civil War breaks out, Alexandra is arrested for being an aristocrat, and Peter is assigned by now-Commissar Axelstein to take her to Petrograd to stand trial. However, Peter instead takes her to the safety of the White Army. Their relief is short-lived; the Red Army defeats the White the next day, and Alexandra is taken captive once more. Peter steals a commission as a commissar of prisons from a drunken official and uses the document to free her. The two, now deeply in love, flee into the forest on Alexandra's estate, where they enjoy a brief idyll. Later, they catch a train. At a railway station, they pretend to be brother and sister, but one Communist official has a photograph of the Countess. A young and sensitive Commissar Poushkoff (John Clements) entranced by Alexandra's beauty, brings in an old gardener from her father's estate who, tipped off by Poushkoff, swears that she is not the Countess. They must go to Samara for confirmation of her identity, and Poushkoff arranges to escort them. On the train, on the first night, his suspicions are confirmed when he sees Peter tenderly kiss her hand. Poushkoff's articulate speech, good manners and immaculate appearance suggest that he was a student. He advises them to come up with a better story.