Last night I was looking for a spy movie, and my search was made easy by the unambiguously titled "Nazi Agent"(1942). You can't get more Blue Label than that when naming an espionage film. The great Conrad Veidt ("Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", "Casablanca") stars in a dual role as German identical twins, one of whom is "Otto Decker", a patriotic U.S. immigrant who runs a used book shop. The other is "Baron Hugo von Detner", the German consul general stationed in New York. He's the Nazi agent in question, working undercover, and as the movie opens he visits his brother with a proposition. "Vee need to use your bookshop for in-for-mayshun gathering. You vill be compensated and it is a chance to do something for your country".
"But this is my country"! Otto declares. "I am an American now, I want nothing to do with your cause. Get out and don't come back"! He opens the door to invite his brother to leave, but the Baron holds a Donald Trump card. "Vould you like me to report you to the immigration authorities? I know about your status here". Otto snuck in on a fishing boat. "Think about vhat vould happen if you were deported back to Jaremany. I'm sorry to have to do this, Otto but you cannot schtand in our way". Thus Otto is blackmailed into accepting his brother's scheme, which involves sending coded messages via books and stamp collections. He's given a handler, a woman who poses as his clerk but in reality oversees every move he makes. Otto wants out of this setup and tries to sneak a letter to an old friend : "I'm being forced to work for the Nazis. Please get help, call the police or FBI". But the letter is intercepted and the old friend is killed.
Otto confronts his brother. "Now you murder an innocent man! My friend had nothing to do with this"!
"Ahh, Otto, but he could have talked. You must underschtand, nothing is more important than the cause".
Otto is enraged and strikes the Baron. A punchout ensues, the Baron pulls a gun and after a struggle it goes off. The Baron falls down dead. One of his henchmen is waiting outside and the mild mannered Otto panics. In a desperation move, he takes off his glasses, shaves his goatee, and dons the Baron's suit. Suddenly he is the Baron! "Everything's okay", he tells the waiting thug. "Otto is dead. It was terrible to have to shoot him but we must move forward". The henchman helps him bury "Otto"'s body.
Otto's decision to impersonate his brother was a spur-of-the-moment impulse because he was afraid to be accused of the Baron's murder. But now that his deception is working, and people believe he's the Baron, he decides to use his newfound power to sabotage the Nazis' spy plans. Only his loyal servant "Brenner" (Moroni Olsen) knows his true identity, revealed by a scar on Otto's back. But Otto doesn't know the specifics of the spy operation; it's protocols and code words. There are some dicey moments as he bluffs his way through their planning sessions.
The goal of the group is to sink U.S. supply ships after they launch out of New York City. The spies acquire departure times and relay them via the code process through Otto's bookstore. U-boats then show up and torpedo the ships. Otto tries to stop this in his guise as the Baron, but some American traitors are working with the Nazis. One, a bomb specialist, notices "The Baron" using a pay phone and reports him to the Gestapo in Berlin. They send their American thugs in to threaten him, but they can't outright kill him yet because his loyalty has never before been questioned. I should note that in watching this film, I was surprised at the level of German subterfuge in this country. I knew they had U-boats off the coasts and spy networks in the major cities, but I wasn't aware how thoroughly they'd infiltrated our system, or that American criminals were on their payroll.
The Nazi plot builds to a climax with a plan to blow up the Panama Canal, using a time bomb planted on an ammo ship. In a subplot central to the last half of the movie, Otto (as The Baron) has fallen in love with a French girl who - like himself - was forced into cooperating with the Nazis. In her case they've got her parents imprisoned back home. She is tasked with spotting the munitions ship so the timing mechanism of the bomb will work accurately. Otto can't bear to watch her become implicated in so heinous a deed, so he bargains with the New York Gestapo agent (Martin Kosleck, always good at playing die hard officious Nazis) to use him instead. "Allow me to trade places with her and I won't turn you in". Things get complicated at this point. Kosleck is in a stand off with Otto, who's also trying to get a message back to the FBI before the canal is exploded. But can he save the French girl in the process? I won't describe the ending, but the film's final image has Otto staring at the Statue of Liberty.
"Nazi Agent" was directed by Jules Dassin, a top Hollywood Craftsman whose work ran the gamut from comedy ("The Canterville Ghost") to Noir ("Night and the City"), to "Rififi", one of the greatest heist flicks ever made. He was also a victim of the HUAC Hollywood blacklist, which is ridiculous considering he made a patriotic propaganda film like this one. It's highly recommended and gets Two Big Thumbs Up. ////
Now then, before we get to our next review - what would you say are the Universal Questions, the enigmas that everyone's pondered? Is there a God? Is there life after death? What is the meaning of existence? Those all come to mind, but I'd add another, one I'm sure all of us have contemplated. It is this : Can you do a Whistler movie without Richard Dix? Strictly speaking, the answer is yes. To wit : "They already did one". But we already know that and it's not what I mean. We wanna know if it works. That's why The Question is "can you do a Whistler movie without Dix", and not "can you make one". Of course you can make one; anybody can "make" anything (all you've gotta do is start making). But "to do" in this case is quite different. It involves "should you" and "will it suck", and "why did Dix quit the series" and (oh shut up, Ad).
Okay I will. Here's the plot then :
A couple drives down a country road at night in the middle of a blinding rainstorm. Why? Because they're gonna get married. Isn't that the way it's usually done? Well anyhow, when they arrive at the preacher's door ("weddings performed", says the sign), he isn't home. "Didn't wanna drive back in this weather", says his wife. She suggests the engaged young couple sleep over at a nearby motel. "That's a great idea", they agree, but they barely make it to their lodgings. Someone has sabotaged their car. We're just getting started with "The Return of The Whistler"(1948), starring Michael Duane in place of Richard Dix, who retired because of health problems. Duane is the young man of the couple. With their car stalled out front, he signs them into the motel. But when the clerk discovers they aren't yet man and wife, he throws Duane out. "Can't let the both of you stay here". It's 1948, you see and.......well, it's just not "that kind" of motel. So Duane volunteers to sleep in the car while his girlfriend takes the bed in the room. Everything's fine until the next morning, when Duane goes inside to collect his fiancee. She's not in her room and he can't find her.
"Who did you say"?, asks the clerk. "I'm sorry sir but there's no one here by that name". Duane figures the guy's a little soft in the head, so he gets the manager and asks the same question. "Can you tell me what happened to Alice Barkley (Lenore Aubert)? I just checked her into your motel last night".
The manager looks at the register. "I'm afraid my clerk is correct. There's no one signed in by that name". Duane figures he getting the runaround. Then the clerk does a 180 : "Oh wait a minute.......here she is. She signed herself out at 3am". It sounds like a bunch of baloney. Duane challenges the clerk and a punchout ensues (and doncha just love all these movie punchouts?) The manager calls the cops. They tell Duane "sounds like the lady got cold feet". Now he's got no car and no fiancee. He's got one hell of a conundrum to solve, though - but before he can think straight, can you believe what happens next?
That's right. The freakin' Whistler breaks in to give him a hard time. The nerve of this guy! After all Duane's been through - the rainstorm, the unavailable preacher, the car breaking down, being separated from his girlfriend, and now being told she's gone - after all that, The Whistler has the audacity to chime in with one of his sarcastic asides, to suggest Duane's at fault for all his current troubles. "Ahh yes, Ted (Duane)......what if you hadn't been in such a hurry to get married? Did you ever consider that? What if you'd waited for the rain to stop? Ahhh, but you were in love, weren't you, and love must never be kept waiting".
I mean, screw you Whistler! That's what I'd be thinking if I was Michael Duane. Giving him guff after the hotel staff pulls a Mission Impossible on him. Well, I guess The Whistler's seen it all by now and maybe he's a little jaded. Or maybe he's upset that Richard Dix has been replaced.
Duane ultimately hires a private detective to find out what happened to his gal. It turns out she's been married before, and "it's possible she's running from her ex-husband". Or maybe they're not even divorced. "She's French, isn't she"?, asks the P.I. Duane resents the insinuation, but it's clear that Alice is mixed up in something he doesn't know about. The real question is whether she's in it willingly or being forced. That's all I'm gonna give ya, but I'll say that this is one of the better Whistlers, plotwise. Richard Dix could've given "Ted" a little more heft, which would have added to his torment when the bad guys are trying to drive him crazy. But Michael Duane does a satisfactory job and holds together the last film in the series. Even The Whistler eases up on him at the end. I think he feels guilty about being such a jerk. I give "The Return of The Whistler" Two Big Thumbs Up. And we're in luck, because we still have one Whistler left. That's because we watched 'em out of context. So we still have "The Power of The Whistler", and that one does star Dix! We'll save it for a treat, maybe watch it in a couple weeks.
That's all I know for tonight. I hope you had a nice day and are enjoying the Summer. I send you tons and tons of love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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