Marketic
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Reptileenbu
Did you people see the same film I saw?
Helllins
It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
dougdoepke
The movie's timing is interesting. The release date is Feb., 1942 (IMDB), just two months after Pearl Harbor and America's entry into WWII. Clearly, the film's intent is to both inspire audiences and warn of foreign enemies. But the conspirators in the movie aren't identified (with one irrelevant exception). As a result, I'm surmising the screenplay was completed before Pearl Harbor, but war was nevertheless clearly imminent. Had production gone beyond PH, I think the enemy would have been clearly identified. Anyway, it's a rather interesting aspect of the movie's context.With its flag-waving title, no one expects anything deep or probing. Rather, the plot honors an idealized "average" American, Joe (Young), whose fortitude and ingenuity thwarts an (unidentified) enemy's attempt to steal a revolutionary bomb-sight. The narrative ties Joe's courage to that of the heroic Nathan Hale's famous "… but one life to give for my country." Thus, America can face confidently into the War knowing that average Americans retain the heroic stature of old.I like the first part showing Joe's work and home life. Surprisingly, events resist descending into treacle, mainly because of actor Young and a refusal to sentimentalize him—(He believes in God, but as a working man he sleeps in rather than going to church). At the same time, Hunt's idealized housewife is dutiful and supportive, the way a wife was expected to be. The second half, however, drifts into plot contrivance and pedestrian violence. Still, I like the way Joe tries to use happy time recollections to get him through the ordeal. Then too, the flashbacks fill in the earlier period of Joe's blissful courtship and marriage to Mary (note the Biblical first names), rounding out their background with patriotic rituals. (btw, as of 2017, she's still with us at age 100!).Not much of an analytic nature should be expected from this glimpse into wartime ideals. Nonetheless, the cast remains a winning one, along with smooth direction (except for the closing twist), and realistic locations. All in all, thanks be to TMC for digging up this obscure but revealing artifact.
utgard14
This one's good. Released shortly after the United States had entered WW2, it stars Robert Young as a guy working on a special project for the government who is kidnapped by enemy agents. They beat him up for hours to try and find out what he knows. It's an exciting, fast-paced movie that clocks in at barely over sixty minutes. It reminds me of a longer version of the Crime Does Not Pay short films. If you're familiar with that series I think you'll see what I'm talking about. The cast is good, with Robert Young doing a terrific job in the lead and nice support from the lovely Marsha Hunt as his wife and a young Darryl Hickman as his son. Recognizable character actors make up the rest of the cast. It's an unabashedly patriotic and entertaining movie that doesn't waste a minute of its runtime. Worth a look for most classic film fans.
TxMike
It was 1942 and the USA had just entered WW II, courtesy of the Japanese who attacked Pearl Harbor. I wish I knew exactly when this movie actually was filmed, whether before or after that attack.Robert Young, whom many of us got to know really well on later TV series' like "Father Knows Best" and "Marcus Wellby, MD" is Joe Smith. What a generic name, likely chosen to be representative of any citizen in 1942. Joe goes to work in a defense-related job, and thereafter is kidnapped and grilled by men who wanted him to reveal secrets regarding the military plans.We see that they run him off the road at night, then take him to a place where they grill him, threaten him and his family, and beat him up. We can hear the "voice in his head" telling him to think of other things so it won't hurt so much. Also telling him that he swore he would not reveal any secrets.Marsha Hunt is his wife, Mary Hewett Smith. His son Johnny is played by young Darryl Hickman, brother of now more famous Dyawne Hickman of "Dobie Gillis" TV fame.An interesting movie from an interesting period in US history. It drives home the importance of keeping secrets.SPOILERS: After Joe fails to give away any secrets, he is taken away in a car, blindfolded. But he makes a mark on the door of the room he had been held in, and as the car travels listens for clues to where they are, tar strips in a road, a "carvival" sound, etc. When he gets a chance, he jumps out of the car and the crooks, not wanting to get hit on the highway, leave him, injured, on the side of the road. He eventually gets rescued, cops come to his aid, and they track down the crooks with his clues, reversing the order. The mark on the door proves he was there. It turns out one of the crooks was an "inside" man with law enforcement.
SLP
I saw this movie when I was 9 at our local movie theatre on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, CA. It was just a bit after we had entered WWII, and all of us kids at Logan Street School were out checking on the planes that flew overhead to make sure they weren't Jap or Nazi(Politically incorrect now, but the usage then) I remember Robert Young being kidnapped by Nazi spies and what impressed my friends and myself the most, was his leading the FBI back to their hideout while being blindfolded. A real great propaganda film of the day.
