Watch Confessions of a Nazi Spy For Free

Beautiful, moving film.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Based on a series of articles, then a book, "Nazi Spies in America," by ex-F.B.I agent Leo Turrou, who lost his job for writing, this is an interesting period piece. The dialogue has its clunky moments, especially when characters pause to speechify. But that was probably necessary as part of the propaganda of the time, when it was important to wake up America to the dangers of Nazism before Pearl Harbor. It was a time when too many voices were saying Hitler's was a European war and that America should keep out of it, and pro-Nazis like Charles Lindberg and the radio priest, Father Charles Coughlin, drew large audiences. Although there certainly were Nazi spies in the U.S., resulting in numerous convictions, at the same time it's worth noting that the direct threat to America was exaggerated in the film. In 1939-1940 Hitler was focused on continental Europe first, then Britain, and had spent little time thinking about America. But the existence of Nazi spies certainly justified setting off alarm bells across the country and an effort to determine just how serious the threat was. Again, the film's value is largely as a period piece.I do fault the script for portraying the spies as confessing and switching sides much too easily. Those moments struck me as highly unrealistic.The website of the FBI describes the spy cases on which the articles, book and film were based. The case of Guenther Rumrich, who attempted to obtain 50 blank passports by posing as the Secretary of State is described at http://1.usa.gov/SbtCWj, although the FBI describe him as "crafty" while in the film he appears as a fool. The FBI also admits its failure in the case, reporting that "four times as many spies had escaped, including the biggest fishes." Leon Turrou, the ex-agent who wrote the book on which "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" was based, fares very badly in the FBI account. Another case related to the movies was the Duquesne Spy Ring, involving 33 spies, described by the FBI at http://1.usa.gov/TcR74V.

Before viewing this film on DVD or TCM, I recommend clicking on this You Tube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw4_xmUgo3w&feature=relatedIt'll give you a lot of perspective on German Nazi ambitions before 12/7/41 here in the states. Hitler's theory was "why not America?" Afterall, he had used his pre-war excuse of bringing together all Germans under Third Reich rule as a pretext for marching into the Rhineland, the Austrian Anschluss, the Sudetenland, all of Czechoslovakia, the Polish Corridor and the Polish city of Gdansk renamed Danzig by the Germans."Confessions of a Nazi Spy" conveys a clear cut message which was to destroy the United States from within. I found the film to be quite compelling and well acted.I refrain from discussing plots when writing a review because plots can easily be read on IMDb however I will say that Edward G.Robinson comes across perfectly as the G-man investigator of the subversives. Also plaudits go to the convincing acting of three Nazi agents, Francis Lederer, George Sanders and especially Paul Lukas.

Those who would comment upon the film "Confessions of a Nazi Spy"--and many other Warner Brothers films--would do well to see director Richard Schickel's five-hour film "You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story" and the book that accompanies the film, both of which were created as the centerpiece of a celebration of the studio's 85th anniversary (more information on this series is available on the PBS website under the series American Masters).While "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" is seen as mild in its view of the Third Reich today, it was the first anti-Nazi film produced by any studio and was so controversial in its day that the studio was to be prosecuted for making the film and would have been prosecuted had the Empire of Japan not attacked Pearl Harbor two weeks before the prosecution was to begin.

Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, Paul Lukas and George Sanders star in "Confessions of a Nazi Spy," a 1939 film done in anticipation of the United States becoming involved in World War II. There was a proliferation of the German-American bundts, and Hitler was using them to spread Nazi propaganda in the U.S. Robinson, as an FBI man, is brought in to head an investigation of spy activities.The film is done in semi-documentary style - sort of a dramatized documentary. Sanders is the head of one such bundt, and he sports a short haircut and a very convincing German accent. Lederer plays a amateur spy in it for the money and the power trip, and Lukas is a doctor who hides behind his profession but is really an impassioned believer in the Reich who helps get the spy material through. All of the performances are very good and hit the right tone."Confessions of a Nazi Spy" is heavy on the propaganda as should be expected, warning the country that there are Nazis everywhere. Were there? Hard to say but given the Germans who emigrated to the U.S. who still had families back home, it's entirely possible.The most interesting thing about the film was that all these Nazi infiltrators were living on U.S. soil expressing belief in the Reich and Hitler - yet each time one of them was told they had to return to Germany, the blood drained from their faces and they begged to stay in the U.S.! Interesting film, as are many of the films that preceded the U.S. involvement in World War II.