Paul Schrader said that every movie, from its first moment, teaches you how to watch it. "Garbo, the Spy", which begins with a series of outtakes from films ranging from World War II military documentaries to dramas made by both Hollywood and Pinewood, will immediately have you wondering what kind of movie you are being taught to watch. Mixed in are interviews with several talking heads who are presumably talking about the same person, but who is he and what does he have to do with all those film clips? The confused viewer might want to know whether any of this will ever become clear and prove worthy of the investment in time. The answer to both questions seems to be "yes".
This peculiar movie is the story of a peculiar man named Juan Pujol Garcia, whose many guises might as well be explored by looking at odd movie clips - even if, at first, they strain patience and credulity. The story itself is strange. Pujol was essentially a conman who lulled people into believing he was whatever they wanted him to be; but his most specific ambition was to be a spy and a double agent at that.
Born in Barcelona in 1912, Pujol participated in two wars, but he did not initially get what he wanted. His efforts to play both sides of the Spanish Civil War were so disastrous that, I cannot tell which side of the Civil War he was really on.
When World War II came, Pujol again tried to become a double agent. The British rejected him four times, but the Germans proved to be more trusting. Pujol made his intelligence reports to the Abwehr, or German military intelligence, at their Madrid outpost. He told them that he was in London but, at first, he was right there in Madrid, though he later moved to Lisbon. His reports "from London" were faked by doing research in public records and then doctoring them by adding speculation.
If the Germans had been more careful in analyzing Pujol's reports, they might have realized the truth which was that he had never been to London. For example, Pujol told the Germans that British dockworkers would give up classified information for the price of a few glasses of wine. That dockworkers might know something strategically important was not incredible, but, as one of the interviewees (possibly British historian Nigel West) observes, the typical British dockworker of the period had probably never tasted wine in his life.
Pujol told the Germans that his intelligence came from a network of agents that he actually had made up. Still, the British rejected Pujol when he applied to work for them, but the Spaniard was already helping them. On one occasion, for example, he misled the Germans so badly about British strategy in the Mediterranean, that Germany diverted their forces to protect against a phantom attack. The British knew that someone must be fooling the Germans on their behalf, but they did not know who or why.
At this point, Pujol applied for a job with the Americans, telling them specifically about his deceptions. Although they did not hire him, the Americans passed on his information to the British, who realized that Pujol must be the mysterious agent who had been misleading the Germans. They hired him, brought him to London, and gave him the codename "Garbo", after the film star Greta Garbo. (The Germans already called him "Alaric" and called his (phony) network "Arabel".)
In London, Pujol was teamed with a British spy named Thomas Harris. Together, Pujol and Harris continued the work that Pujol had already begun, feeding the Germans a combination of truths, half-truths and outright lies, supposedly based on intelligence reports from an international cast of what were actually fictitious spies. It was Harris and Pujol who repeatedly told the Germans that the Allies were going to invade Europe at Pas de Calais. Even after the Allies invaded at Normandy on 6 June 1944, Pujol continued to assure them that this was just a diversion and that the real invasion would be at Pas de Calais. How did the Germans continue to believe in Pujol when no Calais invasion materialized? Pujol told them that after a couple of months, the Allies had decided that the Normandy landing had worked so well that they cancelled the Calais landing. The Germans must have believed this because they continued to value Pujol's intelligence reports.
Pujol also helped the British codebreakers who were busily cracking the complicated Enigma Code that the Germans used. The key to the code was changed every day. Pujol's reports helped the codebreakers because, after his reports were sent to Madrid, they were always transmitted by Enigma to Berlin. By comparing the Enigma version to Pujol's original text, the codebreakers had a key to the daily code.
Pujol and Harris further humiliated the Abwehr by having them pay Pujol and his network, sending money to London through a businessman in Madrid. Since the fictitious spy network did not really need the money, it went to the British intelligence service to pay for their operations. The Germans were thus tricked into financing their own defeat. (The make-believe spymasters killed off one of their imaginary spies and made the Germans give a pension to his equally notional widow.)
I am reminded that there were plenty of times during World War II when the Germans fooled the British, but this is about a true case of the shoe being on the other foot in a way that proved consequential. At the end of the war, Pujol went back to Madrid and met the Abwehr agent who had been transmitting his reports to Berlin. The German abjectly apologized to Pujol on behalf of Germany for losing the war. He had no idea that he was talking to the man who, as much as any individual, had ensured that Germany never had a chance of winning.
After the war, Pujol continued behaving like the great imposter that he was. Leaving a wife and children in Europe, he traveled in Africa where he was reported to have died in 1949, but nearly four decades later he resurfaced in Venezuela where he had a new family. His two families might have been miffed, but Pujol was brought to the U.K. where he was given a medal by the Queen and a ticket to the 1984 celebration of the anniversary of D-Day.
"Garbo, the Spy" tells us as much as it can about what Pujol did, and winks at us noting that Pujol's mischief accomplished much good, but the man remains as much of mystery at the end as he was at the beginning.
This peculiar movie is the story of a peculiar man named Juan Pujol Garcia, whose many guises might as well be explored by looking at odd movie clips - even if, at first, they strain patience and credulity. The story itself is strange. Pujol was essentially a conman who lulled people into believing he was whatever they wanted him to be; but his most specific ambition was to be a spy and a double agent at that.
Born in Barcelona in 1912, Pujol participated in two wars, but he did not initially get what he wanted. His efforts to play both sides of the Spanish Civil War were so disastrous that, I cannot tell which side of the Civil War he was really on.
When World War II came, Pujol again tried to become a double agent. The British rejected him four times, but the Germans proved to be more trusting. Pujol made his intelligence reports to the Abwehr, or German military intelligence, at their Madrid outpost. He told them that he was in London but, at first, he was right there in Madrid, though he later moved to Lisbon. His reports "from London" were faked by doing research in public records and then doctoring them by adding speculation.
If the Germans had been more careful in analyzing Pujol's reports, they might have realized the truth which was that he had never been to London. For example, Pujol told the Germans that British dockworkers would give up classified information for the price of a few glasses of wine. That dockworkers might know something strategically important was not incredible, but, as one of the interviewees (possibly British historian Nigel West) observes, the typical British dockworker of the period had probably never tasted wine in his life.
Pujol told the Germans that his intelligence came from a network of agents that he actually had made up. Still, the British rejected Pujol when he applied to work for them, but the Spaniard was already helping them. On one occasion, for example, he misled the Germans so badly about British strategy in the Mediterranean, that Germany diverted their forces to protect against a phantom attack. The British knew that someone must be fooling the Germans on their behalf, but they did not know who or why.
At this point, Pujol applied for a job with the Americans, telling them specifically about his deceptions. Although they did not hire him, the Americans passed on his information to the British, who realized that Pujol must be the mysterious agent who had been misleading the Germans. They hired him, brought him to London, and gave him the codename "Garbo", after the film star Greta Garbo. (The Germans already called him "Alaric" and called his (phony) network "Arabel".)
In London, Pujol was teamed with a British spy named Thomas Harris. Together, Pujol and Harris continued the work that Pujol had already begun, feeding the Germans a combination of truths, half-truths and outright lies, supposedly based on intelligence reports from an international cast of what were actually fictitious spies. It was Harris and Pujol who repeatedly told the Germans that the Allies were going to invade Europe at Pas de Calais. Even after the Allies invaded at Normandy on 6 June 1944, Pujol continued to assure them that this was just a diversion and that the real invasion would be at Pas de Calais. How did the Germans continue to believe in Pujol when no Calais invasion materialized? Pujol told them that after a couple of months, the Allies had decided that the Normandy landing had worked so well that they cancelled the Calais landing. The Germans must have believed this because they continued to value Pujol's intelligence reports.
Pujol also helped the British codebreakers who were busily cracking the complicated Enigma Code that the Germans used. The key to the code was changed every day. Pujol's reports helped the codebreakers because, after his reports were sent to Madrid, they were always transmitted by Enigma to Berlin. By comparing the Enigma version to Pujol's original text, the codebreakers had a key to the daily code.
Pujol and Harris further humiliated the Abwehr by having them pay Pujol and his network, sending money to London through a businessman in Madrid. Since the fictitious spy network did not really need the money, it went to the British intelligence service to pay for their operations. The Germans were thus tricked into financing their own defeat. (The make-believe spymasters killed off one of their imaginary spies and made the Germans give a pension to his equally notional widow.)
I am reminded that there were plenty of times during World War II when the Germans fooled the British, but this is about a true case of the shoe being on the other foot in a way that proved consequential. At the end of the war, Pujol went back to Madrid and met the Abwehr agent who had been transmitting his reports to Berlin. The German abjectly apologized to Pujol on behalf of Germany for losing the war. He had no idea that he was talking to the man who, as much as any individual, had ensured that Germany never had a chance of winning.
After the war, Pujol continued behaving like the great imposter that he was. Leaving a wife and children in Europe, he traveled in Africa where he was reported to have died in 1949, but nearly four decades later he resurfaced in Venezuela where he had a new family. His two families might have been miffed, but Pujol was brought to the U.K. where he was given a medal by the Queen and a ticket to the 1984 celebration of the anniversary of D-Day.
"Garbo, the Spy" tells us as much as it can about what Pujol did, and winks at us noting that Pujol's mischief accomplished much good, but the man remains as much of mystery at the end as he was at the beginning.