Confessions of a Nazi Spy is a pretty nifty but matter of fact account of
breaking up a Nazi spy ring in the United States before our entry into WWII.
It is wrapped in yards of pro-American pro-democracy anti-Nazi sentiments
which may not seem so surprising if viewed today, but for the time they were
quite remarkable. When it was produced in 1939 (later updated in 1940 with
current events) America was trying its best to stay out of getting entangled
in events in Europe and the film studios were more than complicit in this.
American isolationists or German sympathizers like Charles Lindberg and members
in Congress (even having a sub-committee investigate whether Hollywood was
trying to bring the USA into the conflict) who spouted slogans such as “America
First” put pressure on the studios to remain neutral and with Germany being
a main market for their films this was not difficult. Studios even hired
people to go through a film’s credits and erase any names that sounded Jewish.
This was even though most of the studios were headed by immigrants from Eastern
Europe of Jewish heritage and even though numerous artists (including some
in this film) from Europe were already fleeing their homeland for the safety
of America. In fact, Harry Cohn who headed Columbia Pictures had an autographed
photo of Mussolini in his office.
There were a few films released that clearly by suggestion pointed to the
Nazis and Germany, but they were not named for fear of antagonizing Germany.
One of the more powerful anti-Nazi films was Blockade in 1938 starring Henry
Fonda as a resistance fighter against the fascists in what was clearly Spain
but never mentioned. Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (1940) was a film
of an innocent American getting caught up in espionage in London with the
bad guys clearly German agents but never referred to as such. The ending
with Joel McCrea’s famous plea to America on the radio as bombs fall on London
was a last-minute addition and Hitchcock had Ben Hecht come in to write the
speech. But again, Germany was never mentioned. Even as late as 1941 MGM
pushed back on William Wyler’s Mrs. Miniver for being too negative towards
the Germans and it wasn’t until after the USA declared war that Mayer gave
the ok to Mrs. Miniver.
So, in this context Confessions of a Nazi Spy was an astonishingly pointed
film. It was produced by Warner Brother’s and Jack Warner basically said
screw our profits in Germany. The Nazis had killed one of Warner’s employees
in a street fight in Germany. The film is a fierce attack on Nazi Germany
and German-Americans who were sympathetic and aiding their fatherland. It
is based on the memoirs of an FBI agent – played by Edward G. Robinson. The
first half follows the footsteps of the German spies with cameos from Hitler
and Goebbels with the second half showing how the FBI broke them up. George
Sanders plays one of the nefarious Nazis but oddly disappears about half
way through the film never to reappear. It did not do well at the box office
when released in 1939 but was re-released a year later to a public that was
seeing the handwriting on the wall. I try and picture myself sitting in a
theater in 1939 watching this film. It would have scared me to death.
This is directed by Anatole Litvak. Born in Russia where he entered into
the film business but then moved to Germany in the 920's where he began directing
films for their premier studio - UFA - but he was Jewish and saw what was
coming and left for France in 1936 where he directed Mayerling - a big hit
on both sides of the ocean. Warners offered hum a contract and he left for
the USA in 1937. Some of his films were The Night of the Generals, Anastasia,
The Snake Pit and Sorry, Wrong Number
