When World War II came along, Warner Brothers dusted off some of their old products and turned them into propaganda grabbing B programmers. In the casse of this one, it is a remake of "Fog Over Frisco" where nasty socialite Bette Davis ends up involved with the wrong people and ends up murdered half way through the film even though she gets top female billing. Here, that nasty victim who becomes a corpse due to her own greed and possessiveness is Irene Manning, a cool looking Lana Turner type blonde, regal but deadly, especially when you find out that she's selling American naval secrets to the Nazi's simply for profit. Craig Stevens is the columnist she hates, speaking out against him and against the possibility of America getting involved in the war in Europe, which makes it clear from the start that she is up to no good. Before leaving for a secret meeting, she leaves a case full of private letters with her sister (Maris Wrixon) who had previously promised Stevens to keep an eye on her sister out of his suspicion of Manning's being a traitor. Even their father (George Irving) furiously declares that he would kill his own daughter if he found out that she was a traitor, but Irving fortunately does not have to resort to daughterside, as somebody on the side of the Nazi's obviously does that for him.
This high spirited action thriller is enjoyable as a propaganda and patriotic driven reminder that during times like this, you don't speak out about possible military secrets because "loose lips sink ships", which in the case of this movie is absolutely true. The timing is set as December of 1941, so there is a very strong reference to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Keye Luke gets the unfortunate part of a stereotypical Japanese visitor to the states, using all the cliched terms that were attributed to Japanese villains during these war set films. "Excuse, prease", and "Solly" (sorry) are all repeated over and over every time he is on screen, and when the attack is shown, an image of Luke takes over, once again uttering those sadly racist expressions that in excess become extremely ridiculous. In spite of all that, this is enjoyable for the type of film it is, and Manning becomes one of those cool hateful villains that makes you very leery of cool looking blondes with femme fatale traits which later became a source of plot in the genre of film noir.
This high spirited action thriller is enjoyable as a propaganda and patriotic driven reminder that during times like this, you don't speak out about possible military secrets because "loose lips sink ships", which in the case of this movie is absolutely true. The timing is set as December of 1941, so there is a very strong reference to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Keye Luke gets the unfortunate part of a stereotypical Japanese visitor to the states, using all the cliched terms that were attributed to Japanese villains during these war set films. "Excuse, prease", and "Solly" (sorry) are all repeated over and over every time he is on screen, and when the attack is shown, an image of Luke takes over, once again uttering those sadly racist expressions that in excess become extremely ridiculous. In spite of all that, this is enjoyable for the type of film it is, and Manning becomes one of those cool hateful villains that makes you very leery of cool looking blondes with femme fatale traits which later became a source of plot in the genre of film noir.