Joe Smith, American

This one came so Early after Pearl Harbor that it can be seen more as a Rousing Call to Arms and is often Mislabeled a Propaganda Piece.

It is also so "In Your Face" and Unambiguous in its Flag Waving that it actually seems Refreshing because it is so Honest.

Everything here is Quintessential "Americana". The Title, Married Couple with Child in Suburbia, the Pledge of Allegiance (without "Under God" by the way), the Nathan Hale Story, the Factory, References to Church Going and Sunday School, Home Mortgages, the Kid's Writing Tablet, and more.

It's Surprising Robert Young didn't ask His Wife to Pass the Apple Pie when They Gather for a "Father's Day" Dinner.

Taken at Face Value (and that's all there is) it is a Good Thriller with a Brutal Torture Scene, made Tolerable by Flashbacks of more Americana and a Patriotic Voice inside Joe's Head telling Him to "Keep a Secret" for His Family's and Country's sake.

Viewed Today it can seem to Drag its Message Heavy and Long, but it all Works as an Interesting Time Capsule, circa 1942 America through the Eyes of an Average "Joe".

I haven't seen this movie in about 40 years but it scared the daylights out of me as a kid. To me Robert Young was Jim Anderson, the exemplary dad of Father Knows Best. So it was really disturbing to see him captured by enemy agents and tortured. I don't remember what they did to him but it was terrible. It seems like they smashed his fingers with pliers. Another cool aspect of this movie is the way Robert Young was able to remember the way to the enemy agents' hideout by sound, even though he was taken there blindfolded. To this day I try to listen to what things sound like whenever I am traveling some place, in case I have to go back there again.

This movie also has an excellent visual texture to it -- shot in black and white with terrific use of shadows, sinister bad guys in dark clothing, bulky old cars.

There are lots of movies you can point to and assume they were Robert Young's audition for Father Knows Best, and when Joe Smith, American starts, it seems like it could fall into that category. Robert is a happy family man, a hard worker, and as devoted to making his wife happy as he is to teaching his son good values.

However, Robert gets a promotion and takes part in secret government plans to help out the factory during wartime. One night, he gets kidnapped, beaten, and tortured to try and extract government secrets. This is not your average Father Knows Best episode.

If you're looking for two movies out of Robert's career to make you say, "I didn't know he had it in him!" then rent The Wet Parade and Joe Smith, American. There's a common phrase we at The Rag like to say about performances snubbed by The Academy, "What does it take?" While that phrase certainly applies to Robert's performance in this film, there's another phrase that also applies. Here at The Rag, we happily brag that the actors and actresses honored with awards and nominations "couldn't have been any better." This high praise is well-earned. Rent it for a very heavy, very raw, Rag-nominated performance by Robert Young.

The movie's timing is interesting. The release date is Feb., 1942 (IMDB), just two months after Pearl Harbor and America's entry into WWII. Clearly, the film's intent is to both inspire audiences and warn of foreign enemies. But the conspirators in the movie aren't identified (with one irrelevant exception). As a result, I'm surmising the screenplay was completed before Pearl Harbor, but war was nevertheless clearly imminent. Had production gone beyond PH, I think the enemy would have been clearly identified. Anyway, it's a rather interesting aspect of the movie's context.

With its flag-waving title, no one expects anything deep or probing. Rather, the plot honors an idealized "average" American, Joe (Young), whose fortitude and ingenuity thwarts an (unidentified) enemy's attempt to steal a revolutionary bomb-sight. The narrative ties Joe's courage to that of the heroic Nathan Hale's famous "… but one life to give for my country." Thus, America can face confidently into the War knowing that average Americans retain the heroic stature of old.

I like the first part showing Joe's work and home life. Surprisingly, events resist descending into treacle, mainly because of actor Young and a refusal to sentimentalize him—(He believes in God, but as a working man he sleeps in rather than going to church). At the same time, Hunt's idealized housewife is dutiful and supportive, the way a wife was expected to be.

The second half, however, drifts into plot contrivance and pedestrian violence. Still, I like the way Joe tries to use happy time recollections to get him through the ordeal. Then too, the flashbacks fill in the earlier period of Joe's blissful courtship and marriage to Mary (note the Biblical first names), rounding out their background with patriotic rituals. (btw, as of 2017, she's still with us at age 100!).

Not much of an analytic nature should be expected from this glimpse into wartime ideals. Nonetheless, the cast remains a winning one, along with smooth direction (except for the closing twist), and realistic locations. All in all, thanks be to TMC for digging up this obscure but revealing artifact.

Joe Smith, American is a bit more than flag waving film, typical of the times back in 1942. It's quite the sociological treatise of its time and rates quite a bit more than most propaganda film, B film that it was.

Robert Young's character of Joe Smith is your average American who probably got some help from the New Deal and now that America is mobilizing for war has landed himself a nice job in the defense industry. Which makes him of interest to enemy agents as we shall see.

One of the things that really got me was that one of the questions that was asked of him as he's being grilled by security people is his religious views. Young replies that he doesn't go to church regularly, but hastens to assure these people that he does send his kid young Darryl Hickman to Sunday School and he does believe in God. The security people beam their approval at him. The idea that someone who is of atheist or agnostic or even freethinking views is a security risk is something we'd see later on in full force during the McCarthy era.

Anyway he gets cleared to work on installing a new kind of bombsight into the planes and then one night some enemy agents kidnap and force him under torture to tell about the bombsight. When the agents go to kill him they make the bad mistake of not killing him in the hideout, but take him by car to wherever they're planning dispose of him. Young makes a daring escape and the police get involved in a hunt for the perpetrators.

The out and out flag waving is kept to a minimum, but when young Darryl Hickman tells Young about Nathan Hale whom he learned about in school it's clear that the message of the film is that there might come a day when we could be called on to make a sacrifice like Nathan Hale, even your average Joe Smith, American.

The film was released in February of 1942 and must have been rushed into production after Pearl Harbor. Marsha Hunt plays Young's wife and if you look carefully you will spot Ava Gardner in an unbilled non-speaking part.

Young who played the ultimate average man in Father Knows Best a decade later on television is perfectly suited for the role of Joe Smith, American. He could be any one of us.