David Harding, Counterspy

"David Harding, Counterspy" is a low-budgeter almost exclusively populated by indistinguishable men in suits, mouthing enough hard-boiled dialogue ("when somebody throws surprises my way, I throw punches") to fry an egg factory. Ironically, the only source of life comes from the single female cast member, the beautiful (if little-known) Audrey Long, as a woman caught between dual loyalties. Apparently this was based on a popular at the time radio series: on radio obviously you only need dialogue to get the story across, but on the screen you need to visualize it as well, and this film lacks the means to do that. *1/2 out of 4.

"David Harding, Counterspy" is a low budget B-movie that is set during WWII though it was made a few years later and looked more like a Cold War film than an anti-Axis movie. In fact, while the film is supposed to be about Axis spies, you NEVER hear about the Germans or Japanese and the story could have just as easily been a film about Russian spies. The clothing the folks wear (particularly the women) didn't help, as they looked like they were from 1950 fashion and hair-wise.

The story is told as a flashback in order to explain why the government sometimes has to be very tricky and use a lot of disinformation to catch evil spies in the USA.

So why did I give this one a 5? Well, it is entertaining...though the acting isn't superb nor is the story. It smacks of the word 'adequate'...adequately entertaining and with an adequate story...nothing more.

If you can get past the rather oppressive opening commentary, then this turns out to be not a bad adventure story that warns of the dangers of fifth columnists operating in the United States during the recently ended WWII. Fortunately for all concerned, they had "David Harding" (Howard St. John). Now he is a shrewd and visionary man who co-ordinates a network of counter-espionage operatives the world over with a view to thwarting the cunning plans of the Nazis to steal valuable industrial secrets and sabotage vital munitions production. Willard Parker ("Baldwin") is a naval officer drafted into help the investigation when it seems that valuable information is leaking from a large torpedo-making factory. It turns out that his predecessor (quite literally) died after his cigarette set his bed alight, and being a bit suspicious he and the man's widow "Betty" (Audrey Long) decide to look into things. There are no shortage of ostensibly upstanding and honest suspects and the one thing "Baldwin" can be sure of his, they will not surrender quietly. There are a few quite effective red herrings here at the start, but as the story progresses the jigsaw puzzle starts to take shape just a little too readily leaving little room for jeopardy at the end. Still, it does move along well for seventy minutes and though maybe not a film I will remember, I quite enjoyed watching it.

Tough luck if you are a woman to happen to this: you have no life of your own, it is entirely controlled and manipulated by others, your destiny is not in your own hands, and if you are ordered to marry someone in a position just to further the espionage interest, you just have to do it and be completely powerless when your husband has to be murdered for having discovered or even suspected your double play. It's a grim and fast thriller about the facts of espionage, how it works, how relentlessly efficient every move must be to curtail the actions of the robbers of state secrets, and how every detail of the technique must work perfectly to get everything in order. This was a successful radio series for 15 years which was transferred for a film like this, it is not easy to follow all the sudden turns of the actions, but it sure is efficient. Howard St. John as Howard Parker is the chief actor and character, while Willard Parker and Audrey Long just have to follow along. The plot becomes quite plausible and reasonable when it appears that Audrey Long is the daughter of her doctor (Raymond Greenleaf), which no one could suspect. A kind old gentlemanly doctor is always absolutely above any suspicion. Only his motives are never explained.

Based on the radio series Counterspy. the title role of David Harding is played by Howard St. John as the rather stern Allen Dulles like section chief of an unnamed Intelligence agency. But the real action is handled here by Willard Parker who gets called back from the Pacific War to takeover the operation of a plant in California that is manufacturing torpedoes for the Pacific War.

As it turns out the widow of the guy that was in the job before Parker is Audrey Long who was going out with Parker while he was in Annapolis. After a while the two take up where they left off before. Still Parker's job is to find a nest of fifth columnist spies who've been getting information out of the plant.

I was pleasantly surprised in that I thought while hardly a great film, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting a Cold War flag waver and it was not all that. The characters are not paste board figures, they do have some depth to them.

Take particular note of Raymond Greenleaf's portrayal of the plant doctor. Talk about hidden depth.

Nothing great here, but David Harding Counterspy might be worth a look.