How to Watch A Call to Spy Online

The film A Call to Spy is inspired by the lives of three women who worked as spies during World War II. Based on historical heroes Virginia Hall, Vera Atkins and Noor Inayat Khan, this film is an inspirational story about their bravery, courage and cunning.

When Britain becomes desperate in the beginning of WWII, Winston Churchill orders the Special Operations Executive to recruit women as spies to build a resistance. This gripping drama tells the stories of two of them - Virginia Hall, an ambitious American with a wooden leg, and Noor Inayat Khan, a Muslim pacifist.

How to watch

With Britain struggling to survive the fall of France and Hitler’s occupation of Europe, Winston Churchill orders his new spy agency – Special Operations Executive (SOE) – to recruit women as spies. The result is A Call to Spy, a gripping drama about the early days of WWII and the exploits of three women – American Virginia Hall, Muslim pacifist Noor Inayat Khan, and Jewish-Romanian spymaster Vera Atkins – who became part of the first group of civilian women tasked with sabotaging German and Nazi activities in occupied France.

As a period drama, A Call to Spy is beautifully shot and boasts impressive art direction. The film’s stolid pacing and focus on the sacrifices made by its characters makes it a riveting watch.

The film is an inspirational reminder that women are capable of extraordinary things – even if they’re in an unlikely position such as being a spy. It also highlights the contributions of the female heroes of WWII and shows that they played a vital role in the war’s victory, even if their actions were less publicised than those of men.

A Call to Spy is a fascinating and inspiring film that parents will want to share with their children. It is based on true events and includes plenty of violence but does not gratuitously show the worst parts of World War II.

What’s more, director Lydia Dean Pilcher is a veteran of documentary films and her depiction of these women’s remarkable feats is genuinely inspirational. She makes sure that all the actors and actresses involved in A Call to Spy, including Sarah Megan Thomas (Virginia Hall), Radhika Apte (Noor Inayat Khan), Stana Katic (Vera Atkins), and David Fox (Moses) perform their roles well.

This movie is a must-see for anyone who has an interest in the female spies of WWII. It is also a great choice for those who enjoy a historical drama, especially one that features a good dose of romance.

In addition to the excellent cast, A Call to Spy also deserves a mention for its meticulously researched period interiors and ephemera. Though its budgetary limitations mean that it does not have the scope to cover all the bases, the realism of its set design and use of period ephemera is impressive, and some scenes are breath-taking.

Synopsis

During World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill launched the Special Operations Executive (SOE), an espionage agency that gathered intelligence and threw its hat into the ring for sabotage. But in an effort to take the SOE outside the box, he also recruited more than three dozen women as spies. That scheme sparked controversy, but it made an immediate difference, and A Call to Spy pays tribute to three of those women by telling their stories.

The film is directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and written by Sarah Megan Thomas, who is clearly passionate about the subject matter. She also aims to make this a young-adult friendly film, which is not always easy in a story that can be viewed as shocking or violent.

Vera Atkins, a Romanian Jewish woman, was responsible for recruiting and overseeing the SOE’s most intrepid spies. The movie zeroes in on two of her real-life recruits – Virginia Hall, an American with a prosthetic leg who worked at her country’s embassy and got rejected countless times because of it, and Noor Inayat Khan, a Sufi Muslim radio operator and daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic who grew up as a pacifist and wanted to help England fight Hitler.

A Call to Spy does a decent job of capturing these women’s lives, but the film itself is often leaden and uninspired. There are a few tense sequences, but overall the film feels sluggish and plodding. It’s not a bad story, but I would have preferred a more exciting and action-packed picture.

There are many similarities between the characters of the three women, including the challenges that they faced due to their disabilities and the sexism, xenophobia, antisemitism and racism that they endured. That said, the screenplay by Sarah Megan Thomas does a good job of portraying discrimination against these women without overtly exploiting the violence that they had to face.

Thomas’ script also does a good job of giving her characters character and personality. In particular, Virginia Hall is a very brusque and hard-nosed woman who struggles to bond with Vera Atkins because she never quite knows her true identity, which is a great contrast to her sweetly fierce Noor Inayat Khan. And I enjoyed how Thomas portrayed Virginia as being able to work with other women even though she had a disability.

Cast

A Call to Spy tells the stories of three women who were recruited as spies for Britain in WWII, and it is a fascinating tale about a part of history that is often overlooked. The movie stars Sarah Megan Thomas, Stana Katic and Radhika Apte, and it will be released on 23 October 2019 in UK Cinemas and on digital platforms worldwide.

During the start of WWII, British leader Winston Churchill ordered his new spy agency – Special Operations Executive (SOE) - to recruit women. In this film, we follow two of the first agents he selects – American Virginia Hall and Muslim pacifist Noor Inayat Khan.

Director Lydia Dean Pilcher focuses on the women’s development, from early training through terrifying situations that they weren’t prepared for, to becoming leaders. She’s not afraid to put her characters in a position of danger, and it’s rewarding to see their bravery come to light.

In addition to telling the stories of these women, A Call to Spy is also a feminist statement. Its cast and crew are all female, and it is a clear statement that women are capable of anything they set their minds to.

The film is based on the true stories of three women – Vera Atkins, an Jewish-Romanian woman; Virginia Hall, an American who walked on a wooden leg; and Noor Inayat Khan, a Muslim pacifist who wrote children’s books. Despite their differing missions, these women worked together to help the Allies win the war.

As you can expect, the plot deviates quite a bit from the actual events and the real-life missions of the three women who are the inspiration for this story. However, it’s still a well-made film that deserves to be seen.

For a historical drama, A Call to Spy is beautifully shot and it has an interesting narrative. It also has a solid cast and a great director in Lydia Dean Pilcher.

While the film’s pacing is stolid, it makes you feel every moment of its two-hour-plus running time. The movie is a solid debut from director Lydia Dean Pilcher and it’s worth seeing.

Rating

There’s a lot to admire about this period drama, which pays tribute to three remarkable women spies. It’s based on the real-life stories of Virginia Hall, Vera Atkins, and Noor Inayat Khan, and it won awards at international film festivals.

Though it’s not without its flaws, A Call to Spy is an inspirational, empowering film that honors these women and their contributions to World War II. It doesn’t depict all the horrors that these heroes endured in real life, but it does include scenes of wartime violence that aren’t gratuitous or graphic. The film is more about the grit and tenacity these spies showed, not the violence itself.

The story of these heroes is an inspiration for young and old, and A Call to Spy makes a great family movie. Those who love period dramas will appreciate the meticulous work Pilcher and Thomas put into making this film look authentic, and they’ll likely learn a thing or two about the lives of these women.

While the film doesn’t have all that much to offer in terms of plot, it does provide a lot of detail about how these women got their start and what motivated them to become spies. It also shows the different ways these women fought back against fascism, and how they were able to succeed in their espionage work.

I enjoyed the film and was able to connect with it, even though I didn’t have any prior knowledge of these characters. I’m not sure if it would be for everyone, but it is worth watching and I feel it is important to tell the story of these women.

I would have liked to have seen more of Noor Inayat Khan and Vera Atkins, as their storylines weren’t as fleshed out as Virginia Hall’s. I felt that Thomas (who also wrote the script) was trying to pay homage to all three of these women at once, and that makes it hard for Noor or Vera’s storylines to compete for dramatic space.