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By John M. Whalen

It’s 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. The nation is nervous about the possibility of another bombing raid by the Japanese, and nobody is more nervous about that possibility than Champ Larkin (James Craig) and his pal Jimbo (Frank Jenks), two convicts doing time on Alcatraz. Champ’s a pretty self-centered guy. He isn’t at all concerned about the war. It’s none of his business. “If they want to fight, let ‘em fight.” he says. “Theres a law says they can’t draft convicts. We’ll sit this one out.” (Jimbo’s a little more thoughtful. “I don’t know, Champ,” he says. “Anybody pulls a sneak trick like that is a rat and a rat means trouble here and there.”)

When they see some Zeros coming in over the Pacific to do a flyover of San Francisco, Champ decides it’s time to evacuate.

Douglas Sirk's first American movie came out so well that Prc sold it to MGM, earning Sirk a promotion out of the Poverty Row studios. John Carradine is excellent - and underplays! -- as the Hangman of Prague who moonlights as a depraved sex criminal. But the context in this wartime propaganda movie is serious -- it commemorates the Nazi murder of an entire Czech town. Hitler's Madman DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1943 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 84 min. / Street Date December 1, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 18.95 Starring Patricia Morrison, John Carradine, Alan Curtis, Howard Freeman, Ralph Morgan, Ludwig Stössel, Edgar Kennedy, Al Shean, Elizabeth Russell, Jimmy Conlin, Ava Gardner, Natalie Draper, Victor Kilian, Otto Reichow, Peter van Eyck, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Blanch Yurka. Cinematography (Eugen Schüfftan, credited as Technical Advisor), Jack Greenhalgh Film Editor Dan Milner Second unit and uncredited production designer Edgar G. Ulmer Original Music...