"After Tonight" was gorgeous Constance Bennett's last film under her RKO contract. She didn't exactly leave on a high note; the film lost money. But the film has its compensations.
It's the old spy falling in love with the enemy story. This one has Karen Schontag (translation: Pretty Day) (Bennett) at the railroad trying to get to Vienna from Paris during World War I. It's there she meets Captain Rudolph Ritter, the new Captain of Austrian Intelligence. No surprise that each finds the other mighty attractive, and, since the train is overbooked, he helps Karen get to Vienna. And who is she really? A Russian, Carla Vanirska, and she's a spy.
Once in Vienna, we see Karen singing in a club and then working as a nurse. Rudolph and his associates are trying to find a dangerous enemy spy, R-14, who is delivering coded messages to the Russians as they try to overthrow the government in Austria.
Well, we all know who R-14 is, with her coded messages in invisible ink that she carries in her books and leaves in a staircase panel. The question is, will Rudolph find out? And if he does, will he have her shot? I love the atmosphere of the European sets and whether or not we think we know what will happen, the film is still suspenseful. Bennett and Roland, who married some years later, are a beautiful couple. So he's an Austrian with a Mexican accent. You can't have everything. What a career - 60 years that began in the silents.
A definite must-see for fans of the lovely Bennett.