FuzzyTagz
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Fatma Suarez
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
wes-connors
From somewhere "back east," pretty blonde Anne Jeffreys (as Evelyn Smith) arrives on the Southern California coast to work for a US Senator. Because he is to receive some delicately "top secret" information about Nazis plotting a post-World War II comeback, Ms. Jeffreys is sent to the beach for a swim. Comely filling her striped bikini, Jeffreys attracts wolf whistles, a "Hubba, hubba!" and binoculars from handsome ex-Marine Lawrence Tierney (as Johnny Christopher). Changing into his bathing trunks, Mr. Tierney moves in for a closer look. Despite having a cute little dog "Bazooka" and a beefy frame, Tierney is rebuffed on the beach and Jeffreys goes home. Accidentally locked out of his car after his own swim, Tierney goes to the Senator's mansion to ask Jeffreys for help...There, Tierney is told Jeffreys doesn't exist and is introduced to another blonde claiming to be the Senator's secretary...Producer Sid Rogell's bottom-billed B-picture is intriguing and well-paced. No doubt "Step by Step" pleased many filmgoers more than whatever accompanied it on a double-feature or matinée. The plot is typically silly and melodramatically played, but never tries to be anything else. Veteran director Phil Rosen know the territory and moves it briskly. Paul Sawtell's soundtrack music appropriately evokes old Hollywood serials. Often cast as a hardened criminal, Tierney is fine as a hero –he should have been cast this way more often. He and "Bazooka" are a good team. Jeffreys is lovely. Leading the capable supporting characters is almost impossibly helpful ex-Marine motel manager George Cleveland (as Caleb Simpson). This is not a bad way to fill an hour, if you've got one.******* Step by Step (8/23/46) Phil Rosen ~ Lawrence Tierney, Anne Jeffreys, George Cleveland, Phil Warren
kapelusznik18
***SPOILERS*** With the war over and Nazi Germany in total ruin those crazy and determined Nazis on the lamb in the USA are again planning to restore the Third, now Forth, Reich to it's past glories in a plan step by step to undermine the very nations, lead by the USA, that defeated them. This insane plan is uncovered by US Senator Remmy,Harry Harvey, who's OSS Agent and close friend Blackton, Addison Richards,has by going undercover uncovered it. Not wasting any time the Nazis headed by on the run wanted war criminal Von Dorn, Lowell Gilmore, make short work of Sen. Remmy's plans to expose them by kidnapping Remmy and his sexy blond private secretary of only one day Evelyn Smith, Anne Jefferys, while at the same time offing Blackton in the process.It just happened that just released from the service shell-shocked, from action in the South Pacific, US Marine Sgt. Johnny Christopher, Lawrence Tierney, and his cute and faithful mutt Bazooka happened to drop in dressed only in his boxer shorts, his clothes got locked in his car, to save the day as well as the nation from a Nazi takeover that was in progress. Johnny had gotten very friendly with Evelyn who in fact wouldn't give him the time of day by meeting her on the beach while she was taking a dip in the Pacific Ocean. With both Evelyn and Sen. Remmy kidnapped by the Nazis lead by Von Dron Johnny in looking for her to ask Evelyn out, with only his shorts on, for a date smelled that there was something fishy going on with the more or less plain Jane looking Gretchen, Myrna Dell, impersonating the beautiful Evelyn claiming to be the girl, Evelyn Smith, that he was looking for.***SPOILERS*** It's fast and furious action with Jonny & Evelyn now fugitives from justice in being mistaken as Nazi spies & saboteurs on the run from the police & FBI getting help from the kindly motel owner Capt. Simpson played by George Cleveland ,of later TV "Lassie" fame, who got the drop on Van Dorn by his claiming to have gone fishing in the salt filled Picific Ocean and having caught fresh water fish! Kidnapped beaten and taken for a ride to be deep sixth in the Pacific Ocean Johnny screws the Nazis by using the tail lights of the car their driving to give out an SOS that brought the entire local police state troopers national guard as well as members of the US Navy down on them!
John Seal
Step By Step plays like a feature version of an old time serial. Jam-packed with fist fights, auto chases, Nazi spies (still causing trouble in the pre-Cold War year of 1946), comedy, a little romance, and lots more, Step By Step also features an attractive lead couple in Lawrence Tierney and Anne Jeffreys. Director Phil Rosen's bread and butter was short and sweet Poverty Row programmers, and this is one of his best. Great fun on a low, low budget.
bmacv
Maybe RKO got caught short by V-E and V-J day but decided to release this wartime propaganda programmer anyway. It's still a clumsy embarrassment all around. Just-demobbed leatherneck Lawrence Tierney spots a comely blonde (Anne Jeffreys) going in for a swim along the Pacific Coast Highway and decides to join her. She's just signed up a secretary to a senator on a hush-hush assignment but both she and her employer are kidnapped by Nazis and replaced by imposters (in her place is Myrna Dell, who looks like she just `bit into a green persimmon'). Tierney spends half the movie in bathing trunks trying to find her even though the police are now after them as a pair of killers. The whole thing looks dark and cheap; not even Jason Robards (Sr.) as an unctuous German helps out. Director Phil Rosen doesn't even attain the level of competence he did in his several Charlie Chan flicks. Step by Step's only virtue lies in eliciting giggles at the awkwardness of its script, its acting, its production values and even its ideology.
