They Made Her a Spy

Prior to the outbreak of World War II (WWII) and continuing through too our entry in the war there was a series of cautionary tales involving Spys and their threat too this countries (U.S.A.) security. THEY MADE HER A SPY (1939) was RKOs' contribution to this trend.

Irene Eaton/Margaret Brennan (Sally Eilers) has a Patriotic as well as personal reason to fight against Spys. Her Brother in the first reel gets blown up testing a new explosive, SABOTAGE! Offering her services to Army Intelligence she quickly infiltrates the ring gaining their confidence. Along the way she meets future romantic interest George Wolf/James Huntley (Allan Lane). Are the Spys defeated and the Republic made secure? You bet and in only sixty-nine (69) entertaining minutes.

THEY MADE HER A SPY is not in the top ranks of these films. That would have to be a film like FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940), Alfred Hitchcock directing. That movie we rate IMDb Eight********stars. This film though is worth watching as it is filled with competent second tier and character actors. The ending has a nice twist when the Master Spy is revealed.

A decent script by, among other people, Michael Kanin, gets turned into an RKO B movie. Although the cast is nominally pretty good -- including Sally Eilers and Alan 'Rocky' Lane as the leads, old pro Teddy von Eltz as the good spymaster and Fritz Leiber Sr. as the rather cadaverous and evil Dr. Krull -- a name borrowed, if I recall correctly, for a bunch of subterranean baddies in the Silver Age Fantastic Four -- the whole thing is rather poorly performed. Saly Eilers is pretty stiff and declamatory and Alan Lane is little better in his scenes with her. Leiber is just fine; the only question in my mind is why he wasn't picked up as soon as he showed his face and given the third degree.

Director Jack Hively is probably at fault for what I see as the film's shortcomings. This was his last year as a director, all in RKO Bs, although he went on to be the AD on several excellent movies of the late 1940s.

"They Made Her a Spy" is from that landmark year 1939 -- the year of so many great films. This isn't one of them. It's a B movie from RKO.

Sally Eilers stars as a young woman whose brother is a victim of sabotage, which has been rampant. She volunteers to do undercover work to find out who is feeding plans and secrets to the enemy. Now, I saw "Carve My Name With Pride," a real-life story, and I know what the government puts you through in order for someone to become a spy. With this woman, she becomes a spy immediately without so much as a background check.

Pretending to be involved with the other side, she is directed to one of the leaders, a Herr Krull, starts delivering results, and earns his trust. That takes up about ten minutes of screen time. But some people are still suspicious.

Fritz Lieber plays Dr. Krull. I'm assuming this is the noted Shakespearian stage actor Fritz Lieber Sr., father of the science fiction writer Fritz Lieber Jr.

There isn't much of a plot here; it seems like Irene no sooner becomes a spy that things come to a boil, the movie is that short. It's not very impressive. Some familiar faces among the supporting players -- Charles Halton, Addison Richards, a few others.

Probably pounded out in five days.

In the late 1930s, Hollywood made quite a few spy films. After all, WWII has brewing and eventually broke out in Europe and Americans were interested in it. However, the US government created a neutrality law which was likely unconstitutional, as it prevented Hollywood from taking sides in the war...so if they made spy films, the studios were careful not to mention which countries were spying on America! This is a bit confusing, I know, and the first film to ignore this law was "Confussions of a Nazi Spy"...and it got away with it because it was based on a real German spy ring in the US which had just been uncovered. So, as you watch "They Made Her a Spy", you'll likely notice that no enemy nation is mentioned...which is strange.

When the movie begins, a military inventor and one other person are killed when his invention was sabotaged. His sister is angry and volunteers to help the US government round up the spies responsible. At first, she's able to infiltrate the ring and gives them copies of a treaty. Then, she steals blank US passports. Now, they begin to trust her more and have her meet an agent who swam to shore. What's next? See the film.

Apart from the film being a bit predictable when it comes to the real identity of the two agents, it is a dandy and entertaining film. Despite being essentially a B-movie, it's well made and well worth seeing...even if you never have an idea who the evil spies are working for in the movie!

While I understand the whole process of background checks and all is not gonna make for a good story to film, what we see in this movie is the other side of the spectrum. I've never seen some random person be hired for a top secret espionage job so quickly.

Asides from that kind of quick story writing, this movie really ain't that bad. There's a very decent performance from the actors. It's not littered with jokes, but the few that pass by are actually funny and overall the whole feel and cinematography is very nice.

Sally Eilers and Allan Lane make a nice couple together; not being pushed together too fast.

Along with those, the elderly couple renting out their room deserves a round of applause too.