Foreign Agent (1942)

Perfect cast and a good story

A Masterpiece!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Let's cut to the chase--this is a cheap and rather dopey film. This isn't exactly a surprise, as it's from Monogram Studios--a production company that specialized in making low-budget B-movies. Occasionally, their Bs were pretty good--but often they were just quickly made and dreary....and "Foreign Agent" is clearly in the latter category. Plus, like so many of the wartime films, it has all the jingoistic clichés you'd expect.The film begins with a bang. In a well-conceived and filmed opening scene, a dead man is found hanging in an apparent suicide. Naturally, it's really a murder and Axis agents are behind this because they wanted to steal this man's invention. What follows are tons of Nazi and Japanese agents in America that look JUST LIKE Nazi and Japanese spies!! They are about the most unsubtle lot you could imagine and I almost expect one to look just like Hitler!! In addition, like many Bs, there are supporting characters tossed in for laughs who aren't the least bit funny nor the least bit believable. Subhuman, perhaps...but not the least bit believable.The bottom line is that unless you really like bad B-movies, there are thousands of better made films from the era that clearly would be more interesting and entertaining than this film. Not horrible but also not good at all apart from the opening scene.

FOREIGN AGENT - 1942This war time flag-waver was put out by bottom feeder studio, MONOGRAM. If their films look like they were filmed in a week, it was because they were! These low budget efforts were all for the cheaper movie house's double and triple bills.In this one, we have Nazi agents doing what they can to sabotage the US war effort. The main plot revolves around the blueprints of a special searchlight. The Nazi types kill the inventor but fail to find the papers. That is because the inventor's daughter, Gale Storm, has them hidden.Storm, is an actress, and singer who shares an apartment with stunt-woman, Patsy Moran. She is also stepping out with fellow actor and soon to be undercover FBI man, John Shelton. In for comic relief is truck driver Lyle Latell, who is also Moran's squeeze. (The plot holes in this one Latell could drive his truck through) Hans Schumm plays the head of the Nazi spy ring with help from Lithuanian-born Ivan Lebedeff doing a terrible job of pretending to be a Japanese spy. There are also several American criminal types helping the Nazis for cash.The story stumbles along forever with sub plots that go nowhere, and a couple poorly staged fistfights. By the time the end rolls around the viewer is ready to commit hari-kari.If it was not for Moran and Latell, the film would be a total waste of 64 minutes. Though, the 20 year old Miss Storm shows a few flashes of talent. Storm would move up the film ranks to better studios and bigger budget projects. She would really hit it big in the mid 50's with several successful television series. These were, MY LITTLE MARGIE (1952-55) and THE GALE STORM SHOW (1956-60) Film noir fans will recall her from roles in ABANDONED, THE UNDERWORLD STORY and BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN.The director was William "One Shot" Beaudine. There was no such thing as a re-take on a Beaudine production.

Two American couples defeat Axis plans to relay military intelligence to off-shore subs.This Monogam programmer was made right after the start of WWII. What surprises me is that the Nazis and Japanese are not as caricatured as I would expect. They're more scheming than malevolent, though Okura (Lebedeff) grunts more than he speaks. That's probably because Lebedeff had trouble with Japanese inflections. Anyway, if you can figure out how the message interception method works, you're smarter than I am. Note too how the blue-collar duo of Collins (Moran) and McGurk (Lytell) do the gritty barroom fighting. That prefigures Hollywood's heightening of the common man's role in defeating the Axis. Then too, there's that soapbox speech from an apparent isolationist who wants the US to steer clear of war. Isolationism from European wars was a controversial topic of the time. Here, however, it's used as part of a Nazi plot. But maybe most telling of the time are the very real fears of a Japanese attack on the West Coast, following their success at Pearl Harbor.Good thing that Gale Storm is cast. She sparkles, as usual, while the rather homely Moran also shows engaging personality. Together, they lift the energy level beyond the colorless leading man (Shelton). Then there's the climax that's so sudden and flat, it's like Monogram ran out of film, which they probably did. Anyway, the movie remains an interesting little time capsule, livelier than the usual poverty row product.

With William "One Shot" Beaudine directing, Monogram reacted to the US entry into WWII with its typical style........cheap and cheaper. Starring John Shelton (whoever that was) and Gale Storm (better known as "My Little Margie" from early television), the story, what there is of it, concerns a group of spies ("group" in a Monogram film means two or three individuals) ineptly working at espionage. There are basically two sets, an apartment and the spies' hideout and the acting is what you expect from Monogram Studios.The story is unimportant here......needless to say the spies get caught in the end before any damage is done. But there are a couple of things worth noticing. In the beginning of the film there is a shot of the Hollywood Blvd. and Gower street sign. "Gower Gultch" as it was known was the home of the poverty row studios, Monogram, PRC, etc. It appears Beaudine ran outside the building to take a shot of the street sign as a lead in to the film. Sure beats location work.Secondly, in an earlier part of the film the conversations of the spies are recorded by the good guys. In order to flesh out the film's running time, the recording is played later in the story and we have the chance to hear a total repeat of the earlier scene of the aforementioned conversation. It is this kind of thing that is endearing about the poverty row studios. They found a way to make films on a shoestring using little tricks like that.This film isn't much but it is not as bad as some of Monogram's offerings. So if you are a fan of Monogram, Mascot, PRC or Tiffany studios, give it a watch. You just have to love these little footnotes to Hollywood history.