They Made Her a Spy (1939)

Overrated and overhyped

Fresh and Exciting

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

***SPOILERS*** After her brother was killed by a sabotaged artillery shell testing out this new and improved mortar for the US Army 24 year old US Government office worker Irene Eaton,Sally Eilers, decided to infiltrate the spy ring involved in her brother's death and have them brought to justice. It didn't take long for Irene to make contact with the spy ring leader Dr. Krull, Fritz Leiber, who despite his misgivings about her completely took her into his confidence. Dr. Krull matched Irene up with his #1 Huntly, Allan Lane, to dig up information in a super bomb that's being experimented with by the US Army that can be guided, not just dropped, to its target from as high as 20,000 feet in the air.As it later turned out Huntley just like Irene are spying for the USA not for the un-named and fictional, something like Inner Slobovia, nation that their supposed to be working for to keep it from getting the information about the super bomb that the US is working on. It's much later when the person involved in the super bomb project Col. Shaw, Frank M. Thomas, is kidnapped by the spy ring that both Irene & Huntley who didn't know that each other were working for the same team, the US Government, save his life thus blowing their cover. But at the same time realizing that being involved with each other won't hurt their future marriage plans as well as careers as US Government Agents.****SPOILERS**** The entire spy ring starts to unravel with the untouchable, in his mind, Dr. Krull getting gunned down in his hideout by the police and the real Mr.Big and mastermind***MAJOR SPOILER***of the spy ring Everett Brock, Addison Richards, making his escape in of all places the very top of the some 800 foot Washington Monument! With no where to go but down and the Capital Police about to put the cuffs on him Brock in forgetting to have a parachute on hand escapes justice by jumping to his death without as much, in facing the electric chair, as a second thought. P.S The hero of the movie Allan Lane became famous some 20 years later as the voice for the talking horse in the popular TV show "Mister Ed."

Who'd believe that a film with this topic could be so sleep-inducing? An unexciting cast, weak story, snarky characters and lame direction mix together for one of the most disappointing "B" features from the usually interesting RKO. Sally Eilers, a second string B leading lady who worked throughout the 1930's is cast as a 24 (!) year old who takes her dead brothers' place in a spy ring where the mission is never really established other than bits and pieces given by possible double agents who are as cartoonish as Boris and Natasha and not as amusing or humorous. Allan Lane is the agent she pretends to be married to in a sequence obviously ripped off from the famous "Walls of Jericho" scene from "It Happened One Night". The screenplay moves in so many different directions taking Eilers and Lane through so many preposterous situations that it is pointless to try and keep up with the amateurish storytelling. This makes the film's 68 minutes seem like an eternity.

Prior to the outbreak of World War II (WWII) and continuing through too our entry in the war there was a series of cautionary tales involving Spys and their threat too this countries (U.S.A.) security. THEY MADE HER A SPY (1939) was RKOs' contribution to this trend.Irene Eaton/Margaret Brennan (Sally Eilers) has a Patriotic as well as personal reason to fight against Spys. Her Brother in the first reel gets blown up testing a new explosive, SABOTAGE! Offering her services to Army Intelligence she quickly infiltrates the ring gaining their confidence. Along the way she meets future romantic interest George Wolf/James Huntley (Allan Lane). Are the Spys defeated and the Republic made secure? You bet and in only sixty-nine (69) entertaining minutes.THEY MADE HER A SPY is not in the top ranks of these films. That would have to be a film like FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940), Alfred Hitchcock directing. That movie we rate IMDb Eight********stars. This film though is worth watching as it is filled with competent second tier and character actors. The ending has a nice twist when the Master Spy is revealed.

A decent script by, among other people, Michael Kanin, gets turned into an RKO B movie. Although the cast is nominally pretty good -- including Sally Eilers and Alan 'Rocky' Lane as the leads, old pro Teddy von Eltz as the good spymaster and Fritz Leiber Sr. as the rather cadaverous and evil Dr. Krull -- a name borrowed, if I recall correctly, for a bunch of subterranean baddies in the Silver Age Fantastic Four -- the whole thing is rather poorly performed. Saly Eilers is pretty stiff and declamatory and Alan Lane is little better in his scenes with her. Leiber is just fine; the only question in my mind is why he wasn't picked up as soon as he showed his face and given the third degree.Director Jack Hively is probably at fault for what I see as the film's shortcomings. This was his last year as a director, all in RKO Bs, although he went on to be the AD on several excellent movies of the late 1940s.