Espionne aux enchères

I loved this film. It's hard to get and/or see on TV these days, as many 40s films are. It stars, once again, the unbeatable combination of two of Paramount's top comedy stars, Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard. Goddard the gorgeous, I call her. She wears very luscious clothes and looks fantastic in them. The plot is mistaken identity and Paulette is the one who is being sought. She supposedly has plans of some sort of government secret tattooed in invisible ink on her back. The fun of the film is in all those villains attempting to get Goddard unrobed and catch a gander at the plans, as though that were what the audience was casting their eyes on. As in all screwball comedies, this has a happy ending with our hero and heroine swearing their love for each other in of all places, a turkish bath house.

Paulette Goddard is being posted to Lisbon, to assist ace newsman Ray Milland. Meanwhile, a gang of crooks have stolen some secret plans, and decided the best way to hide them is to tattoo them in invisible ink on Margaret Hayes' back. They also come up with the fiendish plan to convince everyone that Miss Hayes is Miss Goddard. This fails, so when Paulette gets to Lisbon, everyone thinks she is Miss Hayes, including spy masters Albert Dekker, Roland Young(!) and Cecil Kellaway(?).

Miss Goddard gets off a few wise cracks. Mr. Milland slugs Miss Hayes and the whole thing looks like someone wanted to make Sidney Lanfield eat crow, and so assigned him to this. I understand Buddy De Sylva was busy at this point trying to bring Preston Sturges to heel. He might have spent his time better on this production.

Bad girl Margaret Hayes (Rita) assumes the identity of reporter Paulette Goddard (Sidney) in order to pass on secrets to her Nazi contact Albert Dekker (The Baron) in Lisbon. She has some plans tattooed onto her back and then covered in invisible ink so nothing shows up. The information can be retrieved by applying another fluid onto her back. She is destined to meet up with Dekker at a Lisbon hotel, but, in a mix-up, it is Goddard who shows up at the hotel and is pursued for the information that she knows nothing about. Fellow reporter Ray Milland (Kenneth) is there to help solve the mystery as all are chased around the hotel.

The film plays out straight-forwardly with no real suspense and far too much comedy that isn't necessarily funny. Especially from the dithering Roland Young (Ronald) as a British envoy. There is an amusing sequence of events that involves Goddard, Dekker and Young at the beginning of the film when both Dekker and Young ask Goddard to remove her clothing. But that is the only stand-out scene apart from the beginning when Hayes gets her tattoo. The film also scores points for the hotel rooms and Goddard's outfits. However, the film is nothing more than an OK time-passer.

When the film begins, a lady is having top secret plans drawn onto her back using invisible ink. She is NOT tattooed despite what the summary says...trust me on this! The plan is to have this lady travel to neutral Lisbon in order to sell it to the highest bidder-- be it the Allies or the Nazis! As a cover, the plan is to have this evil woman pretend to be Sidney Royce, a news correspondent. To do this, they arrange to have the real Ms. Royce waylaid. However, this part of the plan is messed up when their agent is captured by American customs officials...and the real Royce (Paulette Goddard) ends up in Lisbon BEFORE the fake one arrives. Immediately, she is shocked--she's given a suite in the hotel and it's paid for AND soon agents approach her and start making seemingly unseemly remakes to her--telling her to take off her clothes and show them her back!! She thinks the British and Nazi officials are just dirty old men-- not realizing that they think she has these plans on her back! There's much, much more to the story and a bit of a romance with a handsome correspondent (Ray Milland). How will all this craziness end? See the film.

This movie is an interesting and enjoyable blend of comedy, suspense and romance. Unusual to say the least and the plot does work despite the crazy story idea about invisible ink on a woman's back! Well worth seeing. Excellent acting and just fun to watch.

"The Lady Has Plans" is interesting for its content and timing alone. It's an American film that premiered on January 20, 1942. The U.S. had been in World War II just six weeks. That was two years after the start of WW II in Europe. Which means that this movie had been in the making since early in the war. Yet, some or much of its filming was done after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

While there's no indication that America was yet at war, this clearly is a WW II espionage film. It's part thriller and part comedy. A band of thieves steals military secrets to sell to the highest bidder. Nazi Germany is interested. So too is Great Britain. And, Japan is mentioned.

There is no presence of armed forces and no battles or military operations here. Rather, the action takes place mostly in neutral Portugal. Lisbon truly did become a city of spies and intrigue during WW II. This film gives an early peek at what Lisbon would become during the war. Several films during and after the war show the city as a hotbed of intrigue and espionage. It also was the great escape hatch for many who fled Nazi Europe for the Americas. That point is made in "Casablanca" and other films during and after the war.

The plot seems a little hokey - the smuggling of a secret plan drawn with invisible ink on a woman's back. But, it was certainly possible. A number of older movies were made about the use of invisible ink. In this case, the design of a secret American weapon is drawn with invisible ink on the back of an attractive woman spy. She has taken the identity of an American newswoman, Sidney Royce, who is being sent to Lisbon. The story doesn't divulge how the thieves knew about a reporter's transfer in time to hatch their plan and make fake passports and documents. But, the story unfolds with intrigue, occasional doses of humor, and some action when the real Royce gets to Lisbon ahead of the spy.

The cast all give fine performances. Ray Milland plays Kenneth Harper, head of the American news outfit. Paulette Goddard is Royce, the new reporter sent to help him. Roland Young is the British embassy intelligence officer and Albert Dekker plays the German embassy gestapo leader, Baron von Kemp. Margaret Hayes plays the female spy, Rita Lenox, and Addison Richards is the chief of the espionage thieves, Paul Baker.

Most viewers should enjoy this film. Collectors of war films and those interested in espionage films may want to add it to their film collections.