hyped garbage

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Call it a war on espionage, a war on terrorism, a war for world peace. It's a serious example of the horrors of what evil will do to destroy freedom and create anarchy. This starts off with the most horrifying murder, that of a scientist who has created a tracking devise to prevent our ships and oilers from being detected. The enemy uses it for just the opposite, to be able to track tankers and destroy them so bombers cannot be re- fueled. When radio engineers are let go from their positions out of suspicion of being part of this espionage ring, one of them (Richard Arlen) unknowingly becomes involved with the villains, putting both the government and the bad guys on his trail.A subplot involving Arlen's niece being in surgery sugar-coats the drama which at its best has elements of film noir and at its weakest, elements of DrKildare. Some of the chase sequences with Arlen desperate to get the goods away from the Japs and Nazi's is close to what Dick Powell was trying to do in the same year's "Murder My Sweet". Wendy Barrie is along for the ride as a government agent who at first follows Arlene around and later tries to help him. One dimensional villains give a predictability to this interesting and often complex drama that isn't overloaded with war propaganda and is at its best when it focuses on the important elements of the story and gets off the unnecessary soap involving the little girl. More psychologically gripping than action packed, it ranks slightly higher than most of the propaganda filled action films released through Pine Thomas at Paramount around the same time.

It's a shame someone would equate this film to a propaganda reel. Unnecessary jingoism was part of American culture at the time. Only three brief instances of possible propaganda exist here -- 1) when our protagonist says he wouldn't want to join the New World Order because he doesn't like their tactics. Saying that is a bad thing? I guess it was not fair since we didn't get a Nazi response to how their way of life really is. 2) the quote over the intercom "You know what to do, boys" when the air squadron heads out for a combat mission. Unnecessary cheerleading in a movie, yes, but part of American film culture at the time. 3) at the end, when our antagonist becomes an American citizen, he says "We know our way of life is best, and we're fighting to keep it that way." Again, should the movie have been fair to Nazis by giving their point of view on their way of life? Seriously?!? Sometimes we know wrong is wrong and there doesn't need to be a defense of it. Therefore, not propaganda.Lastly, this movie does NOT defend the right to be an illegal alien. Nothing is illegal about our antagonist. He's a legal alien but not a citizen. Illegal status never once enters the conversation.Overall, an okay, swift moving crime/war drama that isn't very memorable but definitely not a terrible 76 minutes.

**SPOILERS** With the Nazis having stolen this advanced radio transmitter from American electronic expert Johann Bergstrom they now have the upper hand in transmitting information to theirs allies the Japs in when and where US oil tankers will be in the South Pacific. With that important information the Japs can get their subs to track the oil tankers down and sink them before they reach and resupply, with their precious cargo, the US Navy on the battlefront. This has a lone Japanese submarine being able to pick off the oil tankers almost as soon as they leave port with the US Military, during all the confusion, not being able to come to their rescue while the sub is able make its escape.Looking ahead the FBI realizes that the transmitter sooner or later would need repairing and, with the cooperation of the electronic industry, has all the top electronic engineers on the West Coast fired from their jobs. In the FBI knowing that one of them will end up being hired by the Nazis, without his knowing it, to do the repair job for them. This has Lee Deerhold without a job and desperate for cash in paying his bills as well as for a brain operation on his step-daughter Tina, whom he rescued from Nazi Germany after the Nazis murdered her parents, end up working for them. Unknown to Lee he's being secretly tracked by the FBI in the person of Agent Ann Patterson who used the occasion, that was planned in advance, of her purse being snatched to get introduced to him. It isn't long when Lee realizes that he'd been set up by Ann and that makes things worse not just for him but the FBI who now are in danger of their scheme, in planting Lee inside the Nazi spy network, coming apart at the seams!The usual Hollywood made war film during WWII with a slight twist to it. In that it shows that even non-American citizens who Lee Deerfield is one of them are just as patriotic and willing to fight and die for their country as any red blooded American. This, being a non American citizen, is in fact the reason that Lee felt that he was canned from his electronic job as the company's top radio repairman. And it was that very reason that Lee's Nazi employers who were running, as a cover, the phony Old Mill Hot Spring Spa tried to recruit the disillusioned Lee into their spy-ring.***SPOILERS*** With him knowing that the security of the United States is on the line Lee does his best to alert the FBI in what the Nazis, and their Japanese cohorts, are up to! This has Lee get stymied by the head Nazi Dr. Honeker by him doing his impersonation act in him impersonating someone that's, whom Honeker had murdered, already dead! Locked inside a steam room at the Old Mill Spa together with FBI Agent Patterson Lee's only chance of surviving in being, together with Ann, steamed to death is both his own electronic expertise and teenage radio ham operator Johnny. It's that combination of good old Amerian ingenuity and inventiveness that brought the Nazi spy-ring to a sudden end before it could do any more damage. It also has Lee not only become, by and act of Congress, an instant American citizen and, lucky for him, get drafted into the US Army but get Tina that brain operation, free of charge, that ended up saving her life.

This film was made by Pine-Thomas Productions (distributed by Paramount)--a tiny company with only a few credits to its name before SUBMARINE ALERT. Not surprisingly, it's a low budget film with the services of two leads whose careers had seen better days. Richard Arlen had been a big name in the silent and early days of talkies (having, for example, co-starred in the first Best Picture Oscar-winner, WINGS). But, by 1943, he was pretty much doing journeyman roles--taking what was available at a fraction of his earlier salaries. As for Wendy Barrie, while never a big star, she had been in a decent number of films (most notably, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES and a recurring role in the Saint series). Here, they both give their best efforts and the results are certainly nothing they should have been ashamed of--even with such a tiny studio.The film is about a plot by the combined Nazi and Japanese espionage agencies to sink American shipping. These dirt-bags recruit Arlen because they assume (incorrectly) that because he recently lost his job due to security concerns over his citizenship status, that he'd betray his adopted country. Naturally, though, he, Berrie and the FBI work together to destroy these Axis creeps--huzzah! Overall, the story is interesting, the action generally good (except for the toy sub that was blown up in the end) and it did its job in convincing the folks at home that the enemy was evil but easily defeated. Worth a peek.