I Was an American Spy

Based on a true story U.S. citizen Dvorak poses as a cabaret singer in Manila during WW2 to help combat a Japanese attack. Code name "High Pockets" she endures many dangers and severe punishment for the sake of her country in this tense spy story. Also impressive in the cast are Gene Evans, Douglas Kennedy and both Richard Loo and Philip Ahn performing their nasty Japanese soldier bits. However it's Dvorak who makes it all worth while. The veteran actress who excelled in such films as "Scarface" (1932), "Three on a Match" (1932), "G Men" (1935), "Our Very Own" (1950) etc. is outstanding as the American spy. Also featured in the film is the song "Because of You" which was a big hit for crooner Tony Bennett.

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.

That's the film from westerns chain made specialist Lesley Selander that amazed me the most. If this movie had been shown to me without any credits, I would have never - I mean NEVER - bet one dime it was from the B western film maker Lesley Selander. It nearly looks like a Raoul Walsh, John Farrow, or even Michael Curtiz' film. I insist on the "nearly" of course. Ann Dvorak here is not a surprise for such a war drama inspired from real life story. Yes, a damn good movie from Lesley Selander whose filmography, I repeat, was mainly focused on westerns. However, this story saves no surprise, a propaganda biopic among others. But, because it is from Lesley Selander, it is worth the watch.

Based on real events, "I Was an American Spy" is several stories in one of valor and heroism. It is a unique film that includes spying, underground resistance, sabotage, and help for escapees and prisoners. It's a story about one of America's most successful volunteer spies in WWII – a rare example of Allied espionage in the Pacific theater. And, it is one of the best films about resistance to the Japanese by Philippine men and women.

Many books have been written and films made about spying and underground resistance to the Nazis in Europe. But very few such examples exist with the Japanese in WW II. So, this film has added historical value as well.

Others have commented on the movie plot, but I'll share some of the information I got when I tried to find out more about the all but forgotten hero of this film. Claire Phillips (nee, Snyder) was born in Michigan in 1908, but grew up in Portland, OR, where she graduated from high school. She joined a circus for a time, was a nightclub singer and was drawn to the theater. She joined a troupe that went to the Orient to play major cities. She landed in Manila for a few years where she married a Filipino and had a daughter, Dian. After five years, she divorced and returned to her home in Portland with her daughter. She became bored after several months and returned with Dian to Manila. That was in the fall of 1941. She married an American Army sergeant, John Phillips, during the Japanese invasion in December.

The movie is about her life during that time until the end of the war. After the war, she and her daughter returned to Portland where she lived for the rest of her life. She received many honors and recognitions at home. Articles were written about her and she appeared on radio programs (TV wasn't widely available until after 1950). She received a free deed and keys to a new home in Beaverton, OR.

In 1947, she wrote a book, "Manila Espionage," about her life and exploits during the war. This 1951 movie was based on her book and a magazine article. In 1951, she received the Medal of Freedom from the U.S. – the only woman who was honored based on the recommendation of General Douglas MacArthur. While some 200 total awards of the Medal of Freedom were made for WWII and Korea, most of those were to people from other nations for their heroics in helping Americans.

But after a few years in the limelight, Phillips became restless and dissatisfied with working in a department store. She married again, and divorced. She became a heavy drinker and within nine years after the movie came out, Claire Phillips died of meningitis. She was 52.

There was some interest in Portland in 2011 in providing a permanent memorial to this WWII hero. One can wonder why that wasn't done in the past. While her heroic efforts during the war have been honored, could there be other things about her life that most citizens would not want to hold up for people to model? My guess is that the answer is "Yes!" based on articles available online, and considerable changes or glossing over in the movie.

For instance, magazine and newspaper accounts refer to Phillips as the "Manila Mata Hari." Yet, the movie shows her as a proper woman who runs a respectable club. In reality, her Tsubaki Club, was a high-priced, high class nightclub and brothel. Articles describe the girls and the matron performing for their high-ranking Japanese clients. Also, in the late 1950s, Phillips sued the U.S. government for $146,850 in compensation for her work. She received just $1,349 and the U.S. Claims Court decision read, "Much of her story was greatly exaggerated and at times almost fanciful."

"I Was an American Spy" has one big fault – what seems to be a clear Hollywood altering of the story that detracts from the film. In several early scenes, Phillips tries to follow and find her husband who had to report to his unit on the front lines. Her character, played by Ann Dvorak, is almost hysterical when she insists she wants to go with him. In real life, Phillips had been around the American forces for years at Manila. She would have known that families don't go off to war with the troops. Common sense tells most of us that. And Phillips was not such a naive person as that.

So, why would Hollywood alter her story to put this tripe in it? My guess is to paint a picture of the heroin precisely as a naive, innocent and clean person before the start of the war. That would also explain how the movie then accounts for her change of character – to someone who could kill and spy on the Japanese herself. We see a fictional scene in which she watches the Bataan death march and sees her husband shot and killed for stopping to drink from a well. After crying over her husband's body, she picks up a gun and shoots several times killing a very elderly Japanese soldier who came out of nowhere – with his rifle slung over his shoulder. Totally unbelievable!

This film could have scored a 10 if the film makers had cut most of the opening hide-and-go-seek scenes, and instead replaced them with more scenes of the real underground help and resistance efforts. That would also have shown more of the deserving honor of the Filipinos, several of whom worked for Phillips.

Ann Dvorak is real-life spy Claire Phillips in "I Was an American Spy," a 1951 film also starring Gene Evans (known to baby boomers as the father in My Friend Flicka on TV) and with a prologue and an appearance at the end of the film by General Mark Clark.

Though the movie takes the usual dramatic license, it does tell the true story of Claire Phillips, a woman living in Manila with her daughter when the war broke out. After she becomes a widow, Phillips helps the Americans by changing her identity and starting a gentlemen's club in Manila, which becomes popular with the Japanese soldiers. From her club, she provides information, food, boots, and medicine to the soldiers and prisoners of war (although if prisoners of war were mentioned in the film, I missed it). Her code name is "High Pockets" because she would put notes in her brassiere.

If Claire Phillips did a third of what Ann Dvorak portrays in this film -- and I think actually she did much more -- one can see why she was given the Medal of Freedom. I do think the beginning, with her following her husband's battalion around is probably a little fanciful. I mean, walking around in the jungle by yourself - is anyone that foolhardy.

Ann Dvorak is wonderful as Claire. She portrays the woman's bravery, finesse, sophistication, coolness, pluck, and her fear and suffering. An underrated actress who usually played supporting roles and retired from the screen after marrying her third husband in 1952, Dvorak shows that Warner Brothers should have given her better movies.

I thought this was a very good, compelling story of a courageous woman who served our country.