Agent double

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.

In these days, when many are more concerned about the rights of terrorists than the security of our country, a simple old movie like ESPIONAGE AGENT reminds us that no country can afford to relax its vigilance against terrorists within its borders.

Joel McCrea, on the verge of making one of the best WW2 spy pictures of all (Hitchcock's FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, 1940), plays a likable US diplomat who makes the mistake of falling for a woman with a shady past. Orphaned in Europe, his wife Brenda was recruited by German spies, and now that she's married into the diplomatic corps, her handlers want her to use her connections for further infiltration. The two lovers decide to play their own double game to bring down the Germans.

There's nothing extraordinary about the film. It's simply done, with solid acting and a taut script with no wasted scenes (and no money wasted on actual location shoots). What makes it seem so special is its timing: being released just as WW2 openly broke out in Europe, and the danger of spies became more of a real threat to free countries everywhere. There's also a nice balance between the spy plot, the romance plot, and some humorous bits involving annoying American tourists.

Just like today's terrorists, the German saboteurs operate under a neutral-sounding front: the WORLD PEACE ORGANIZATION. Early in the picture, discussing the government's reluctance to do something about saboteurs, a high-ranking US official asks a question that rings true here in the post-9/11 world: "Will we as a nation ever learn the difference between tolerance and stupidity?"

Trivia bit: keep your eyes open for Clark Kent AND Perry White from the old SUPERMAN TV series.

And contrary to a previous poster, this film is not in the least confused about which war it's about. The opening scenes, with the father of McCrea's character, take place around WW1. Then there's a very clear narration bringing us up to the late 1930s, and there are several references later on to "20 years ago" (meaning the World War). Someone must have been dozing.

Want to know how much difference a director can make? Watch this film, with Joel McCrea as a blundering American naïf in Europe on the eve of World War II exposing an Axis spy plot under the hacky direction of Lloyd Bacon, and then watch "Foreign Correspondent," which McCrea made the next year in a similar role, similar plot, at least one supporting cast member (Martin Kosleck) in common and even another sequence set during a rainstorm -- but under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock. "Espionage Agent" isn't a bad movie and it probably would be a lot more likable if McCrea hadn't made "Foreign Correspondent" (albeit playing a terminally naïve journalist instead of a terminally naïve diplomat) a year later.

Incidentally, the comment by "bkoganbing" is wrong. Though the film begins in 1915, it quickly leaps forward to 1936 (the year the Spanish Civil War broke out) and the bulk of it takes place in the late 1930's -- though, even so, the German uniforms are otherwise correct but their armbands are missing the swastika. Even after making "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" (which was about Nazi abuses in the U.S., not in their homeland), Warners was still being skittish about directly taking on the German government.

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.