''Espionage Agent'' is a pre–

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

spy melodrama produced by

Hal B. Wallis Harold B. Wallis (born Aaron Blum Wolowicz; October 19, 1898 – October 5, 1986) was an American film producer. He is best known for producing ''Casablanca'' (1942), ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), and '' True Grit'' (1969), along wit ...

in 1939. Directed by

Lloyd Bacon Lloyd Francis Bacon (December 4, 1889 – November 15, 1955) was an American screen, stage, and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director, he made films in numerous genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, and c ...

, ''Espionage Agent'', like many

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

movies, clearly identifies the Germans as the enemy. This was unlike many other movie studios during this period that did not want to antagonize foreign governments. The film was released on September 22, 1939, the day after President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

signed the Neutrality Act allowing "Cash and Carry" provisions for countries fighting Germany and a little over four months after another Warner Bros. anti-Nazi film ''

Confessions of a Nazi Spy ''Confessions of a Nazi Spy'' is a 1939 American spy political thriller film directed by Anatole Litvak for Warner Bros. It was the first explicitly anti-Nazi film to be produced by a major Hollywood studio, being released in May 1939, four ...

''.Michael E. Birdwell, Celluloid Soldiers - Warner Bros.'s Campaign against Nazism (New York University Press, 1999)

Plot

The film opens with a description of the

Black Tom explosion The Black Tom explosion was an act of arson by field agents of the Office of Naval Intelligence of the German Empire, to destroy U.S.-made munitions that were about to be shipped to the Allies during World War I. The explosions occurred on Ju ...

of a munitions supply located in

Jersey City Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

on the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

. The explosion, which occurred during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

was an act of sabotage by German agents. Barry Corvall (

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

), the son of a recently deceased American diplomat, has just got married. When he discovers that his new wife ( Brenda Marshall) is a possible enemy agent, he resigns from the diplomatic service to go undercover to expose an

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

ring planning to destroy American industrial capability before war breaks out. Traveling on a train in Germany, Corvall attempts to steal a briefcase with documents in an attempt to prove that the Nazis have been infiltrating vital industrial centers in the United States. With the help of his wife, he tries to foil the plans of the Nazi spy (

Martin Kosleck Martin Kosleck (born Nicolaie Yoshkin; March 24, 1904 – January 15, 1994) was a German film actor. Like many other German actors, he fled when the Nazi Germany, Nazis came to power. Inspired by his deep hatred of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis ...

Cast

as Barry Corvall * Brenda Marshall as Brenda Ballard * Jeffrey Lynn as Lowell Warrington *

George Bancroft George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian, statesman and Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state of Massachusetts ...

as Dudley Garrett * Stanley Ridges as Hamilton Peyton * James Stephenson as Dr. Anton Rader * Howard C. Hickman as Walter Forbes *

as Karl Mullen *

Nana Bryant Nana Irene Bryant (November 23, 1888 – December 24, 1955) was an American film, stage, and television actress. She appeared in more than 100 films between 1935 and 1955. Biography Bryant was born 1888 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She appeared in ...

as Mrs. Corvall * Rudolph Anders as Paul Strawn *

Hans Heinrich von Twardowski Hans Heinrich von Twardowski (5 May 1898 – 19 November 1958) was a German film actor. Career In Germany Twardowski was born in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin in Poland). He made his first film appearance in the 1920 Robert Wiene-directed hor ...

as Dr. Helm * Lucien Prival as Decker *

Addison Richards Addison Whittaker Richards, Jr. (October 20, 1902 – March 22, 1964) was an American actor of film and television. Richards appeared in more than 300 films between 1933 and his death in 1964. Biography A native of Zanesville, Ohio, Richard ...

as Bruce Corvall * Edwin Stanley as Secretary of State *

Granville Bates Granville Bates (January 7, 1882 – July 8, 1940) was an American character actor and bit player, appearing in over ninety films. Biography Bates was born in Chicago in 1882 to Granville Bates, Sr., a developer and builder, and Adaline Bates ...

as Phineas T. O'Grady

Bans

The film was banned in Norway in January 1940. The Norwegian authorities did not provide any reason for the ban just issuing the following statement: ''The film above is not approved for public viewing in Norway.''

References

External links

* * * {{Lloyd Bacon 1939 films American black-and-white films American World War II propaganda films Films directed by Lloyd Bacon Films scored by Adolph Deutsch American spy drama films Warner Bros. films 1930s spy drama films 1930s melodrama films 1939 drama films English-language spy drama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films Film censorship in Norway English-language war films