Alerte aux sous-marins

Add 'Submarine Alert' to the long list of films that wasted Wendy Barrie's considerable acting skills. You'll note she's the sole competent actor in this close to being a kid's film about spies, the FBI, a sick child and lots and lots of plot holes. Too many to mention. If....and it's a big 'if', you can keep from saying 'hey wait a minute' or 'that just doesn't make any sense' out loud while watching, then this movie might have some merit as a time piece. Beyond that, it's a mess.

German spies are transmitting shipping secret shipping news to Japanese submarines off the coast. The Feds are aware of this, so they fire resident alien electrical engineer Richard Arlen -- he's from Minnesota, but he has a French name -- and then promptly lose track of him as the Nazis try to recruit him, and Wendy Barrie snubs him.

It's a sub-par efforts from producers William Pine and William Thomas, Paramount's favorite B team, who never produced a money-losing movie in their careers. Director Frank MacDonald doesn't seem to put much effort into the film, and Maxwell Shane's script is arranged like a serial, only the cliffhangers are paced uninterestingly. With Nils Asther as an emigre scientist, Abner Biberman as a Japanese sub commander, and Dwight Frye as a creep.

Don't be too quick to judge this WWII espionage caper, while it appears to labour early on, it picks up the pace and delivers a coherent, economical jaunt through a Nazi plot to scuttle oil tankers en route to the allies, after acquiring a top secret transmitter that's capable of pinpointing the location of ships using pre-determined supply routes. Arlen is the recently unemployed radio engineer who inadvertently finds himself wanted by the FBI when he's duped into assisting the enemy.

Arlen is stoic in his patriotism, even giving a little call to arms rally in the film's post script, while Asther, Biberman and the prolific Marc Lawrence play the principal bad guys within contemporary stereotypes. Wendy Barrie plays an FBI operative whose ends up fighting the good fight alongside our noble hero.

It's a shame the film ends the way it does, as there needn't have been the unnecessary jingoism - this is a film after all, not a propaganda reel. Nevertheless, for your 66 minute investment you'll get a reasonably well paced espionage pot-boiler with a hint of intrigue, the usual raft of clichés and for bonus material, there's even a "MacGyver" moment to rally the allies into action. Solid plot and taut execution, just a shame that it morphs into trite propaganda.

It's a shame someone would equate this film to a propaganda reel. Unnecessary jingoism was part of American culture at the time. Only three brief instances of possible propaganda exist here -- 1) when our protagonist says he wouldn't want to join the New World Order because he doesn't like their tactics. Saying that is a bad thing? I guess it was not fair since we didn't get a Nazi response to how their way of life really is. 2) the quote over the intercom "You know what to do, boys" when the air squadron heads out for a combat mission. Unnecessary cheerleading in a movie, yes, but part of American film culture at the time. 3) at the end, when our antagonist becomes an American citizen, he says "We know our way of life is best, and we're fighting to keep it that way." Again, should the movie have been fair to Nazis by giving their point of view on their way of life? Seriously?!? Sometimes we know wrong is wrong and there doesn't need to be a defense of it. Therefore, not propaganda.

Lastly, this movie does NOT defend the right to be an illegal alien. Nothing is illegal about our antagonist. He's a legal alien but not a citizen. Illegal status never once enters the conversation.

Overall, an okay, swift moving crime/war drama that isn't very memorable but definitely not a terrible 76 minutes.

Once this wartime B-feature gets going, it's not bad, and it builds up enough suspense and intrigue to help you look past the low production values. Richard Arlen and Wendy Barrie also contribute with solid performances in the two leading roles. For movies of the era and genre, it is a little less strident than most in its attacks on Axis nationalities, giving somewhat more emphasis to the personal plight of the main character (Arlen).

Arlen plays a radio engineer who, not being a US citizen, finds himself out of work when the FBI orders his employer to let him go. While Axis spies try to dupe him into helping them with a special transmitter that they are using to target Allied tankers, the G-Men are still keeping their own tabs on him. Barrie comes into the story as something of a wild card.

The script takes somewhat too long to set things up, and it adds some characters that are never used for anything of importance, so that it takes a while to start making any real progress. But after that, it works all right, as Arlen's character finds himself in one fix after another. By portraying the federal agents as rather heartless and unimaginative, the movie's tone becomes somewhat darker than what you might normally expect from a picture whose general aim is to promote the Allied cause.

Though there's nothing new or particularly impressive about "Submarine Alert", there's probably enough to make it worth seeing for those who have an interest in the era and genre.