They were brought together by Alexander Korda to make the World War I spy thriller novel of the same title by Joseph Storer Clouston into a film.

The Spy in Black stars Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson and Sebastian Shaw, with Marius Goring and Torin Thatcher as two German submarine officers.

In March 1917, Captain Hardt (Conrad Veidt), a World War I German U-boat commander, is ordered to spy on the British Fleet at Scapa Flow, rendezvousing at the Old Man of Hoy.

Tiel has taken over the identity of a new local schoolteacher, Miss Anne Burnett (June Duprez), whom female German agents had intercepted and chloroformed en route to the island.

Hardt's "contacts" are really British double agents – Ashington is in fact RN Commander Blacklock, and "Fräulein Tiel" is his wife, Jill.

Harris's clothes, Hardt manages to board the island ferry, which is also carrying Jill, a number of civilian passengers, and eight German POWs.