J'étais une espionne américaine

I Was An American Spy is a remarkable film for two reasons. First it's one of the few non-westerns that director Lesley Selander did in his career. Secondly I'm surprised that this story did not rate A picture treatment with a bigger name actress other than Ann Dvorak. Dvorak was on the downward slope of her career at this point.

That being said Dvorak gives a wonderful performance as the saloon entertainer Claire Phillips who married a GI stationed in the Phillipines the day after Pearl Harbor. When her husband Douglas Kennedy is killed in action she not only survives among the Japanese, but builds an extensive spy network and helps prisoners with food and gives valuable intelligence for sabotage working closely with American and Filipino guerrillas. Her main contact is Gene Evans heading up all the guerrilla activity in the islands, a role similar to what John Wayne does in Back To Bataan.

Remarkably when she was caught she was kept several months in prison and was found nearly starved to death according to the Wikipedia article on Claire Phillips. They kept her alive in the hopes she'd crack and give the Japanese information. The woman had the right stuff for sure, she never did. I doubt though her rescue was in real life quite as action filled as it is in this film.

Notice should also be taken of Richard Loo once again playing a Japanese soldier, in this case a colonel she makes a monkey out of. Loo had a career of playing cruel Japanese soldiers during World War II. Loo is given a bit more depth in this film than normally.

A nice B film that rated A picture treatment of a real American hero.

1951's "I Was an American Spy," the story of real life Filipina spy Claire Phillips, was adapted from her 1947 publication "Manila Espionage," depicting her activities as a Michigan-born widow conducting sabotage against occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines between 1942 and 1945. The release coincided with her receiving the prestigious Medal of Freedom that same year, although later scholars suggested that many of her accounts were 'without foundation' (she died of meningitis at age 52 in 1960). Regardless of any factual basis, it provides the 40 year old Dvorak (Cesca in the 1932 "Scarface") with the last great meaty role of her career, and a reminder of her own past as an ambulance driver for Britain's war effort (the real life Claire Phillips was delighted to have the legendary beauty cast in her shoes, and the two became good friends). We open with the announcement of Pearl Harbor's attack, Ann Dvorak as Claire with small daughter performing in a Manila night club while awaiting the return of her current paramour, American sergeant John Phillips (Douglas Kennedy). Once the Japanese invade the Philippines everyone heads for the hills, Claire catching up to John for a quickie marriage before he departs, later shot down before her eyes after the fall of Bataan, with Gene Evans as Corp. John Boone now looking after her. This steels the widow's resolve to return to her stomping grounds in Manila posing as a recently deceased Italian songbird, Richard Loo as Japanese Colonel Masamato quick to respond to her charms (it's never explicitly stated that Claire's establishment doubles as a brothel). The soppy, typical Hollywood beginning of a weeping Claire pining for her lover is by far the weakest section, but once she takes charge as secret agent 'High Pockets' it centers on her intriguing interactions with Loo's Colonel, granting her special privileges to travel and access to materials that can help the allied cause. Philip Ahn (KUNG FU's Master Kan) enters late as Captain Arito, delayed from an urgent mission by Claire's promised fan dance, American bombers sinking his vessel and tipping off the betrayed Colonel as to the identity of 'High Pockets.' Richard Loo was a longtime veteran dating back to Bela Lugosi's "Shadow of Chinatown" or Boris Karloff's "West of Shanghai," suitably concluding a lengthy career as Christopher Lee's wealthiest patron in 1974's "The Man with the Golden Gun." This film offers him a villainous Japanese with a bit more shading, acknowledging failure to achieve his own mission and genuinely admiring the pluck of his attractive female captive (even as Allied forces mow down his troops he cannot bring himself to shoot her, resigned to his fate with a final act of contrition).

It's 1941 Manila. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Claire (Ann Dvorak) is an American nightclub singer desperately following her soldier boyfriend Sgt. John Phillips. They get married on the run from the Japanese. After Corregidor falls, she joins up with a ragtag group of soldiers led by Cpl. John Boone. As secret agent High Pockets, she returns to her club life and befriends Japanese Col. Masamato.

This is based on a true story. Of course, there are some liberties taken and quite frankly, the true story is questionable in the first place. Ann Dvorak is too blonde. It is hard to believe that such a white lady could operate behind the lines. Her acting is also too melodramatic. It is rather an old style of acting. She is pretending to be Italian although it may be asking too much for her to speak Italian or even speak English with an Italian accent or a Spanish accent or a Philipino accent. On the other hand, it does feel more dangerous if she has no language skills. At the end of the day, this feels like halfway in terms of realism and story telling.

Does anyone have biographical information on Claire? Her birth name was Claire Snyder. Anything you have will help, such as birth date/place, parents, siblings, etc., as well as what happened to her after her book "I Was an American Spy" was published? In the 1950s, she was remarried, with the surname Clavier.

I've found a speech by Senator Wayne Morse (he was an Oregon Republican who became an independent in 1952, then switched to the Democratic Party in 1955) about Claire Phillips Clavier (at a rough guess about 80% of the people with that surname are from Louisiana).

I also found a studio synopsis of the movie. Based on that, Boone is John Peyton Boone (then a corporal).

Claire's book "Manila Espionage" is out of print, and very difficult to find.

During WWII, Claire Phillips was stuck in Manila after the Philippines fell to the Japanese. Following her husband's death, she apparently became an important member of the underground...though she did it in wide open as a hostess of a night club. The story is interesting and should have been made...but there is one serious problem. It seems that Claire was a liar. Yes, some of this DID happen but later when folks began investigating her claims, they found many exaggerations and outright lies. It's a shame...but the film still is entertaining and worth your time.

In the lead is Ann Dvorak. It's one of her last films and she was good in the role..particularly because she was older and less glamorous...and looked a lot like Phillips. The direction and production were all good...and the only reason I don't give the film a higher score is due to the dubious nature of the details of her exploits.