Espionage Agent (1939)

Producer: Hal B. Wallis. Executive producer: Jack L. Warner. Copyright 30 September 1939 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. A First National picture. New York opening at the Strand: 22 September 1939. U.S. release: 30 September 1939. Australian release: October-December 1939. 83 minutes. NOTES: Thanks to her co-starring roles with super-star Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk and Footsteps in the Dark, Brenda Marshall was extremely popular with Australian audiences. This seems to be her film debut. COMMENT: Politically dated but it still has some interest. There's a bit of excitement, though the climactic action finishes just as it is warming up. What makes the film interesting is that it is given the full Warner Bros "A" treatment: brisk, slick direction by Lloyd Bacon, attention-getting montage routines, lavish sets and a spectacular support cast. Brenda Marshall, although not as stunningly beautiful as the scriptwriters specify, makes a good fist of the title role.One thing we like about the script is that it doesn't follow conventional melodramatic plot lines but has some unexpected, if politically motivated, twists. Joel McCrea fills the hero part with his usual likableness, while Jeffrey Lynn holds up a small and unimportant part as the hero's buddy. It's wonderful to see Martin Kosleck looking so neat and villainously smooth. Our old friends Robert O. Davis and Hans Schumm are also along to fill out the Nazi ranks. Sarah Edwards and Vera Lewis are disgruntled enquirers at the consulate and there is a large round of familiar cameo players on the State Department staff.Bacon's direction is brisk and assured, if inclined to use too many close-ups. Rosher's lighting photography treats his players kindly, even if it is a minor factor in the creation of atmosphere. But the sets are impressive and the music score has that familiar Warners' sound.

In the 30s and 40s, when Warner Brothers got hold of a social or political philosophy they didn't monkey around. In "Espionage Agent," released in 1939 when America was neutral and would remain so for another couple of years, Warners gives us a heads up on who the bad guys are.Brenda Marshall, desperate and broke, in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, stumbles into the German Consulate and begs them for shelter. They give it to her -- forged passport and all -- with the proviso that she go to America and spy for them.On the ship, she meets all-American Joel McRea, they fall in love and get married. She forgets about her agreement with the Germans until one of them shows up and reminds her of it -- and don't forget those forged papers. She tells all to her husband. The couple travel to Switzerland to unravel this tangled web of bent allegiances and threats.The Nazis are never named, although the uniforms are suggestive. I'm not sure Germany is even mentioned. It's mainly "them" and "they" and "their kind." The Nazis come in three types. The thugs, the most numerous, are brutal and slimy. They do the wet work. Their skulls are misshapen or their jaws too large for their faces. The middle men are like Martin Kosleck, icy, smiling, holding his cigarette in a fancy European way, and so forth. Kosleck himself, born into a Jewish family, was a refugee from Hitler who looked so much like Goebbels that he managed to play him on screen five times. There is always a Nazi boss who runs the spies. As usual, he's tall, distinguished looking, gray haired, suave, and has a thin black mustache. He speaks with a British accent and carries a Luger.Joel McRea could never play a Nazi. Not only didn't he look or sound enough like a Nazi -- that wouldn't necessarily have been a hindrance -- but he didn't have the acting range to pull it off. No, he could never play a Nazi. He would have had to stretch to play a man with devalued impulses, no matter how well he stifled them.Brenda Marshall is the dame caught in a moral vice. She cares nothing for the Nazis but in revealing her circumstances she may lose the man she loves or, at the least, cause him to end his career with the Foreign Service. Like McRea's, her acting is reliable and straight out of the Hollywood lost wax process. She has a piercing stare, no matter what the rest of her features are doing. I'm not sure the camera ever catches her blinking. At the same time, she looks more attractive here than in any of the other films I've seen her in, like "The Sea Hawk" and "Captains of the Clouds." She looks spotless, dry cleaned and pressed, even sexy. She was married for years to William Holden, whom she evidently nagged constantly.You know, though, taken all in all, the movie isn't as exciting as it ought to be. The tempo is fast. The scenes don't drag. Warner Brothers' scenes never drag. But the plot is surprisingly dull and director Lloyd Bacon adds little vitality to the proceedings. There is no subtlety in it. The actors hit their marks and say their lines. The camera is placed where it is most effective. A more talented and innovative director, Hitchcock, for instance, could have turned this into much more than it is.

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.

Joel McCrea is a member of the foreign service who inadvertently marries a part-time spy in "Espionage Agent." This is a very interesting film for several reasons. War is about to break out in Europe, and the U.S. is planning to stay neutral, and in fact, in one scene, an American broadcaster gives a call for neutrality.After getting into the U.S. on a forged passport, McCrea's wife, played by the darkly beautiful Brenda Marshall, confesses her past associations, and states that she's been approached to do more favors for an espionage group. McCrea resigns his post, and with his wife's help, sets out to expose the spy network in the U.S.In the aftermath of 9/11, watching a 67-year-old film where a group of people have agents in place throughout the country and sites ready to bomb is chilling.There are some tense, exciting scenes and an attractive cast, but the film is more of historical interest than anything else. Look for TV Superman George Reeves in a very small, uncredited role.