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Submarine Alert
Nazi spies use a stolen shortwave transmitter prototype to broadcast top secret shipping info to an offshore Japanese sub. To nab the spy ring, the Government has the West Coast's top radio engineers fired and shadowed to see if the Nazis recruit them to complete work on the prototype radio. Radio engineer Lew Deerhold, a resident alien without a job to pay for his adorable little ward Gina's life-saving operation, falls prey to the spy ring, and is swept up in a maelstrom of deceit and danger.
Release : | 1943 |
Rating : | 5.3 |
Studio : | Paramount, Pine-Thomas Productions, |
Crew : | Director of Photography, Director, |
Cast : | Richard Arlen Wendy Barrie Nils Asther Roger Pryor Abner Biberman |
Genre : | Action Thriller War |
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hyped garbage
Good , But It Is Overrated By Some
It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
During World War II, Nazi agents operating in the US have managed to steal a top secret radio transmitter that could broadcast signals in near-stealth conditions. Using this invention, they direct a Japanese submarine off the US coast to make attacks on Allied shipping. The FBI decides to spring a trap – they get a noted radio technician fired from his job in order to use him as bait. Sure enough, the ruse works. The tech is approached by the Nazi agents for repair work when their transmitter breaks down. The tech, helped along by a female FBI agent as an insurance plan, attempts to sabotage the Nazis' plot to bring down Allied oil tankers.Submarine Alert is an old spy thriller from the early 1940s, when World War II was in full swing. The film was part of a large array of B-budget spy thrillers designed to get the public on the Allied side. Of course, the problem with many of these films at the time was a shortage of original ideas & poorly written scripts.Submarine Alert is one of these poorly-written spy capers. The film is reasonable enough for a once-over & has some rudimentary suspense but the story is sabotaged by not having enough thought put into it. The FBI's plan to get a radio technician fired so he can lead them to the Nazis' illegal shortwave transmitter was a dumb idea – wouldn't it be better to get the hero to play along with the plan instead of having him strung up as bait? The characters are drawn up to stereotype & the various chases & shootouts don't hold up too well in today's age. The el cheapo DVD print seen here is in terrible condition – the transfer's high contrast makes reading the opening credits near on impossible so you won't be able to get much information from it.
This Pine-Thomas film from Paramount's B picture unit has not stood the test of time all that well. It's a World War II flag waver that casts Richard Arlen as a resident alien who gets tempted by the Nazis to work for them. They need his special skills as a radio man to help operate a prototype short wave system that is signaling a Japanese submarine the whereabouts of cargo ships to sink.For dramatic purposes the film doesn't have Arlen working all along undercover. Instead he and other radio people are summarily fired at the direction of the FBI with the hope that the Nazis would contact him as he was both available and disillusioned with America. Female agent Wendy Barrie keeps Arlen under surveillance at all times and of course the inevitable romance ensues.In a gimmick more suitable to one of Sam Katzman's Monogram extravaganzas, both Arlen and Barrie are captured by the Nazis and locked in a room that fills with poison gas. The slowest acting poison gas in the history of film. Arlen comes up with an idea and sends a signal with radio equipment that some junior G-Man kid picks up and the spies are rounded up and Arlen and Barrie are saved.It was eerily prescient about poison gas and the Nazis. But if this was the stuff they used at Auschwitz, a couple million people would have survived. Also Nazis and Japanese work a lot more coordinated than they ever did in the real war.I'm sure the cast must have looked back with a shudder at Submarine Alert.
Some one is using a new radio system to alert submarines of the course tankers and supply ships will be taking. When the radio signals go silent and a radio expert turns up dead the FBI thinks something has happened to the radio. Taking matters in to their own hands they have several other radio men fired hoping that the saboteurs will contact one of them to repair the radio. One man is contacted and he begins working for the enemy agents unaware what he is working on or that the FBI is keeping an eye on him. Very good war time spy thriller moves along at a good clip. While it doesn't have any big names it does have plenty of atmosphere including a spooky mill that plays a nice role in the closing portion of the film. This is a solid little film that seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. Worth a look.
Bergstrom, a radio engineer expert goes missing during WW II. Deerhold, a resident- alien radio engineer (Richard Arlen, Santa Fe Trail) helps Ann Patterson (Wendy Barrie, Love on a Bet, the "Falcon" movies) when her purse gets snatched. The viewer sees the FBI trying to track down where the enemy radio transmissions are originating, but so far, no luck. Arlen and Barrie get caught up in the search for the people behind the radio transmissions before more US ships get sunk. Maxwell Shane had written many of these military action films in the 1940s. It's all wrapped up neatly in the last minute of the film, and then the usual affirmation of US loyalty by Arlen to the viewing public. Some interesting scenery of downtown LA. Also some choppy edits, and long blackout pauses between scenes. This is one of the films in the "50 Action Classics" from Treeline/TCM. Some big Hollywood names might have added some zing.