An old-fashioned exotic espionage yarn that takes place during WWII in Syria and Turkey. It is based on an Eric Ambler novel of the same title but has very little in common with the book other than the title. That was written in 1937 well before the war began but Ambler saw the danger of the rise of Fascism long before many others. In the film Germany is trying to persuade a neutral Turkey to come into the war on their side and are willing to use spy craft to do so by convincing them that Russia is going to attack them. Russian spies are trying to stop this. And into this walks an American who initially seems to be an innocent in the wrong place but turns out to be much more. Which was another change from the book. Ambler liked having innocents get thrown into the middle of situations like this and work their way out by grit and luck.


Warner Brothers cast their go to guys for this sort of film - Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and George Raft, who is a stand-in for Bogart without the personality. He is as stiff as a piece of plywood in this. Greenstreet is terrific but it is Lorre who steals the show with a wonderful sly, slithering, sneaky, complaining, lying Gollum like performance. You sort of wish the film was centered around him but he gets some choice scenes as he puffs on his cigarettes and tries to look innocent or screams for more vodka. Greenstreet and Lorre were in nine films together. Like ham and mustard. One of the great pairings in Hollywood film. It feels like this is where they went after the Maltese Falcon.


Greenstreet is the Nazi here. I like him as the cerebral villain but not as a Nazi really. It didn't feel right. He puts a plan in motion with some forged documents that shows the Russian plans to invade Turkey. He wants to make sure they fall into the right hands. Raft is taking a train from Aleppo, Syria when he spots an attractive woman (Ossa Massen) by herself in a car and joins her and chats her up. She quotes the Gettysburg Address and says how much she loves America. Nearing the border she gives him a tale of desperation and asks him to hold some money in an envelop for her. Sure says the besotted American. A real sucker play. Come to my hotel in Ankara (my old stomping grounds in Junior High school!) later tonight and give them back to me. Sure. They are of course the forged plans. Is she a German or a Russian agent though?


He arrives only to find her dead and Lorre searching her. Soon the Nazis and the Russians (Lorre and his sister played by Brenda Marshall) are after him and the documents. It becomes a game of chess with a beating or two between moves. But it turns out that Raft is an American agent playing the dumb innocent American. He gets an ally in Turhan Bey (who really was Turkish) and they go after the Nazis with the Russians always nearby. It moves to Istanbul, city of intrigue and danger. A weak ending that could have been much sharper but overall a solid spy film with all the intrigue and mood that one expects in films set in Turkey. The film turns into a Russia is Our Good Ally piece by the end and I wonder if they ran into trouble years later with the Right-Wingers. The screenplay comes from W.R. Burnett, one of the legends in the field. Some of his other works in either novel or screenplay form are Little Caesar, High Sierra, This Gun for Hire and The Asphalt Jungle.