Agente de Espionagem

The Black Tom explosion during WWI set off by German agents is a wake up call to the American homeland. During the Spanish Civil War, arrogant American tourists insist on traveling and foreign service agent Barry Corvall (Joel McCrea) is forced to take care of them. Brenda Ballard claims to be a destitute stranded American. Barry falls in love and marries her. There is an accusation against her and he is forced to resign.

This takes place during the build up to WWII. America is still a few years away from joining. This movie is actually willing to name Germany as the enemy state although it couches the animosity from the first world war. There is a long presentation in the middle railing against possible sabotage from within and proposes more drastic measures to combat it. The first half is a little interesting. Once Barry is forced to quit, the story muddles around and loses its intensity. Sneaking around in a mansion is not going to add to the thrills. This movie is more interested in pushing the panic button on the home front. There are good reasons for that in the real world and it works in its propaganda purposes. For the cinematic world, it seems to be preaching.

Joel McCrea is training for the US diplomatic service when he meets refugee Brenda Marshall and marries her. Soon. She confesses she is a low-level spy, but loves him so much that she is willing to have her secret outed. When they go to McCrea's bosses, they kick him out of the service, but he and Miss Marshall decide to do some counterspying on their own.

It's the second movie in 1939 that Warners made about the German threat. True, the country is never named, and the uniforms worn merely suggest it, but only Universal had made a stand earlier, and that went away with the Laemmles. This is quite obviously not a major production, and Warners was risking no major assets. They borrowed McCrea from Paramount, and this was Miss Marshall's first credited role. Director Lloyd Bacon obviously shot this on the cheap in his usual high-speed manner, but there's a strident call for tougher anti-espionage laws, and the Foreign Service is talked up as "America's first line of defense."

Cryptography buffs will snort when the new mechanical encryption system is talked up. It boasts over 2700 possible cyphers!

Warner Brothers really could have used a better script for this mishmash of a movie which managed to juxtapose the events of World War I into the days before World War II.

The film opens with a description of the famous Black Tom explosion of a munition factory located on an island in the middle of the Hudson River. You can still see the remnants of it today. This occurred before World War I and was traced to German saboteurs then.

The message is quite clear, America needs to have its own espionage agency and we got one with the formation of the Office of Strategic Services as World War II broke out. Until then such distasteful spying matters was handled within the State Department.

Joel McCrea is a foreign service officer who marries refugee Brenda Marshall. Problem is that Marshall had gotten help from the Germans and they expect some help in return. Of course she's in love with her new husband and she refuses and exposes their contact man, Martin Kosleck.

With McCrea's dismissal from the foreign service, the newlyweds decide to form there own plan to expose the German's secret espionage network with a little spying of their own. How they manage is the rest of the film.

For a film that supposedly takes place before American entry into World War I, why is that everyone is dressed in the Nazi uniforms of the Thirties? Everything is there but the swastika. There's not even any kind of effort with music or sets to set the film in its proper time frame.

The only reason this gets as much as three stars is a tribute to the players involved. Joel McCrea was simply in a dress rehearsal for the far better Foreign Correspondent he would do the following year.

Joel McCrae is Barry Corvall, consulate man who gets married right as the german forces were gathering and getting ready to move on all of europe. Brenda Marshall (in her first credited role!) is "Brenda", another american needing assistance in getting back to america, but of course, she doesn't have a passport. or family. or friends. and acts a bit suspiciously (at least to everyone except Barry...) it all blows up later,and now barry must prove that his new bride hasn't committed any crime. George Reeves (Superman! ) is in here as a bit part of a secretary in the office. sadly, Reeves died young at 45, from a gunshot, under suspicious circumstances. This came out in 1939, the same year that germany rolled into poland. the U.S. would be dragged into it in Pearl Harbor, 1941. directed by Lloyd Bacon, who worked with big stars in films 42nd Street, Marked Woman, WonderBar. and even directed Lucy in two comedies. it's okay, as long as you buy into the storyline. some of it is pretty hard to buy into...but it has the gung-ho patriotic message that we will see in so many WW II films.

There is little doubt in this film that World War II is about to begin. In fact, it was released just twenty-one days after the invasion of Poland by German forces and was in production long before. Scare tactics aside, the movie reveals real fears during the months preceding the war. Spies, counterspies, terror, suspicions, and other prologues to war gave ample warning of renewed global conflict. This movie reflects that warning.Viewing this film leads one to wonder, given the ample clues, how the war could surprise anyone.