So Clever Are German Spies in Their Disguises... (1914)

Nuns at bayonet point... almost. It was often the case with newsreel items that it took longer to read the title than it did to see the film. The title writers would use every possible means to attract an audience to even the dullest footage. Here, a horse and cart, carrying two nuns, is stopped by two men with fixed bayonets; their papers are examined, and they are allowed to proceed.

Clearly the title refers to that old propaganda story used by the press in both World Wars that German soldiers would disguise themselves as nuns. However, the footage is a mystery - these are clearly just nuns, and there is nothing to suggest they are under suspicion of being Germans in drag.

The assumption is that this was filmed in France during the early stages of the Great War. But was it? We may never know. (Bryony Dixon)

You can watch almost 1000 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheque - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• BFI
• nuns
• soldiers
• spies
• WW1
• Word
• War
• newsreel
• France
• Germany

[coltsuperocean10]

True storey! In WW2 The Germans built many wooden useless tanks to fool the English spy planes, and positioned them in Northern France. The English dropped wooden useless bombs on them!!

[crazyknight2008]

hehe the german spie was actually the man walking beside the horse after the paper inspection :)

[wbrown95]

TSA screenings happen off camera

[BeppeSapone]

@JimTLonW6 There's plenty from WW2 to keep you happy

[DirtyDefeatist]

belgian soldiers

[JimTLonW6]

There were many German atrocity" stories in WW1, I'm not sure that the evidence stacks up.

[womanofnoimportance]

@kennethj1956 Apparently the average viewer was more literate than you are ... they are NOT spies, but because spies are so good at disguising themselves, they could be, which is why they have their papers checked.

[ELcapalla2]

I've never seen a newsreel this old before, very interesting.

[turnersage]

I'm sure this is a Monty Python sketch?

[Botany101]

gotta love propaganda.

Still around today.

Always was and always shall be.