FILMOGRAPHY: MOVIE LISTINGS

Paramount contributes a bomb to the war effort.

Much has been said about this film in regards to it's negative effect upon Veronica Lake's career and justifiably so. I watched this film two times before writing this review and both occasions proved to be painful experiences. First of all whoever was responsible for the casting of this film should be shot. Franchot Tone is okay as the pathetic pacifist James Heatherton, but whoever played his annoying young nephew Tommy was just wretched. How about casting Veronica Lake as an Austrian with German sympathies? Give me a break. Lake's accent is less convincing than a bad Elvis impersonation. At one point in the film she blurts out "wunderbar" and I sadly felt like laughing. The entire cast was quite frankly bland and boring. There's a point in the film when the characters are taking shelter from a bombing raid in the mansion cellar, and between the screaming brat and the terrible character acting it was just an excruciating experience. Even the special effects were lousy.

The film has a few redeeming moments. One point of interest is a scene in which the characters are gathered around a radio listening to a Churchill speech and Veronica can be seen smoking a cigarette. I've never seen her do that in the other films I've seen. There's another sequence in which Tone's character is stoking a fire and Veronica comes down the stairs to see what he's doing. She's dressed in a nightgown and her hair is down for the only time in the film. She looks absolutely ravishing.

The end of this film turned my stomach. That annoying brat Tommy rats on Lake's character for sympathizing with the Nazis. Heatherton gets pissed off and confronts her. She shoots him at point blank range once in the shoulder before the predictable gun jam. Then she gets off another shot from 2 feet away and somehow misses. She runs and closes a door behind her. He follows her into the room. Two more shots are heard but not seen followed by the sound of a broken window and Veronica screaming as her character falls to her death. I thought Heatherton was supposed to be a pacifist who detested killing. What the hell is going on here, and how did Frank Tuttle go from directing a masterpiece like "This Gun For Hire" to this flop?

This film is mercifully out of print. Perhaps unfortunately for those hard core fans who want to see just how it all started to go downhill for Veronica's film career.

A brave effort somewhat missing the mark.

This is one of those films that you look back on and wonder why a star like Veronica Lake would take up the part of the Mark R Nash (South Wales, UK)enemy agent.. something that was the opposite of her other wartime roles.

You can't help but decide that its an attempt at a breakout from the stereo type she had found herself in... and it might have worked.. if it wasnt for the slightly low standard of the production and sometimes lacking in feeling plot.

Lakes Austrian accent is laughable.. but she does manage to keep it up through the movie and I did kind like her hard-nosed character.. you know shes no good.. but I did like her evil side.. I think they could have played her more as a torn character.. with loyalties to her charges and her country.. but thats not the human face of war propaganda movies of the time.

It worth a watch.. but its not as dramatic, uplifting or as exciting as her Noir phase.. a truly average affair.

A brave effort somewhat missing the mark.

Lake's strange career trajectory continues as she takes on the least likely role for a starlet. I give her a lot of credit to the attempt but it's not a sympathetic role nor is a particularly well put together movie. No one seems that comfortable or indeed that interested in giving a worthy performance.

The odd timing for such a dark movie (1944) along with a studio that didn't seem to believe in it, you wonder why they bothered. As it is it does add flavour to Lake's resume and while accents were obviously not her thing she does have a go at the steely, cold heart of an agent in war time and I appreciated it.