Less than a year
after WW II began, Hollywood film studios were busy knocking out anti Nazi
films. This one is a B film from 20th Century Fox and doesn't have much punch
to it. A lazy script makes it somewhat ridiculous. It casts Dana Andrews
as the hero but this was before he became a star. This was his first leading
role. Playing opposite to him is a June Allyson lookalike, Virginia Gilmore,
a soft dewy-eyed blonde, who was to marry Yul Brynner two years later. And
who plays the nasty Nazi? Poor old Martin Kosleck once again. He had escaped
the Nazis in Germany only to have to play them many times in Hollywood. Sig
Ruman gets stuck playing a Nazi again as well.
Andrews is an American radio newsman stationed
in Berlin in November, 1941. His scripts have to be pre-approved by the Nazis,
but clever guy that he is, he actually passes on military intelligence within
his broadcasts. Kosleck though is suspicious of him and puts a Gestapo agent
on to him - the beautiful Gilmore. She plays him like a sap and not being
the smartest agent in the world, he makes it easy for her to get the proof
as he cooks spaghetti. Lots to follow. He has to impersonate a Nazi officer
to spring his source from an insane asylum run by Ruman. Then escape from
a concentration camp. All in a nifty 70-minutes. Some mild suspense with
a pinch of propaganda and a lovely Gestapo agent. Directed by the dependable
Eugene Forde.
