Product Description

German spies infiltrate Gibraltar during World War I.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147083 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Customer Reviews

WWI spy story by Charlie Chan's creator
ALPHA VIDEO's dvd edition of the RKO early "talkie," INSIDE THE LINES is a WWI espionage story scripted by Earl Derr Biggers, creator of Charlie Chan.

In it, Betty Compson is an English gal who reunites in Gibraltar with an old flame, a German portrayed by Ralph Forbes. Each suspects the other of being involved in nefarious activities. Are they BOTH secret agents or are neither of them spies? See if you can guess!


ALPHA VIDEO is a provider of vintage movies, serials and TV programs, many of which aren't available elsewhere. Their prices are fair, but so is transfer quality of some of their offerings. None have undergone restoration, yet the market scarcity of their material and an honest price make these DVDs a worthwhile purchase.

Also from ALPHA:
In the multi-layered mystery MIDNIGHT WARNING (1932), a guest at a luxury hotel vanishes into thin air right in front of witnesses!


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(6.1) Inside the Lines (1930) - Betty Compson/Ralph Forbes/Montagu Love/Ivan F. Simpson/Reginald Sharland/Betty Carter/Mischa Auer/Evan Thomas/Wilhelm von Brincken

An interesting "early talkie" spy yarn
This is an entertaining early sound film, one of a spate of WWI films made that year (1930). Ralph Forbes was a fairly popular leading man at that time, and made a number of similarly-themed adventure films. Betty Compson was nearing the end of her star days, and heading for second-leads and small parts. Montague Love was an all-purpose (and excellent), authority figure, or villain. He was memorable as the nasty Bishop of the Black Canons in the 1938 "Adventures of Robin Hood" (and also as Henry VIII in the 1937 "The Prince and the Pauper"). Mischa Auer was still playing sinister types at this time, as he hadn't yet broken out into the comedy parts he became famous for, in movies like "My Man Godfrey" and "Destry Rides Again." He was a zany character.

The cloak-and-dagger stuff here is fun, though it is not anything exceptional. It seems fitting that Charlie Chan's creator had a hand in it. It is interesting in that this was made not too long after the war itself, so it has a topical quality that more recent films don't have. You can guess that many of the people involved in the film probably served in the war, or, at the very least, remembered it well. So it has an immediacy about it, just like other films from the era, like "Hell's Angels," "All Quiet on the Western Front," "Journey's End," the original "The Dawn Patrol," "Westfront 1918," etc. Filmmakers were looking back at a period not too distant. Kind of like the spate of Vietnam War films that came out in the late '70s. The recent past. Anyway, I would recommend taking a look at this film. It is melodrama with some historical interest.