Rating: 
Summary: Tense and Exciting Wartime Thriller
Review: This is a terrific wartime thriller from Hitchcock of aircraft munitions worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings), forced to take it on the lam and find a Nazi saboteur named Fry in order to clear his name, as he has been wrongly accused of the act of sabotage at the factory which killed his best friend. Hichcock's films often get compared unfairly to each other but taken on it's own terms this is a wonderfully entertaining suspense film with some genuinely memorable moments. Kane is in constant danger both from the police and a network of saboteurs he has traced to a man named Tobin (Otto Kruger) at "Deep Springs Ranch". Tobin knows who Fry is and also knows no one will believe Kane. But as Kane narrowly escapes the police and the Nazi sympathizers he is aided by some along the way who can see he is a stand-up guy who has been wrongly accused. One of those people is the blind father of Pat (Priscilla Lane), a billboard model who doesn't share her father's faith in Kane and starts out doing everthing she can to turn him over to the police but ends up falling in love and in just as much danger as he is. There is a particularly tense scene at a huge party as Kane confronts the cool and slimy Tobin but can't expose the house full of spys because Pat has been captured and will be killed if he does. This film has some great moments of suspense. A plea for help from the trapped Pat, written in lipstick, floating down a skyscraper in New York waiting to be found, is just one of several memorable moments. The troop of a circus sideshow play a part in Kane's (and Pat's) journey as well, as his quest to clear himself takes him from Boulder Dam to Rockefeller Center to the Statue of Liberty. There is a tight and witty script from Dorothy Parker among others, and Hitchcock's famous 'little touches' to keep this one interesting. Robert Cummings, who had proved himself in comedy the previous year with Deanna Durbin in "It Started With Eve" proved he could do more with this film. Priscilla Lane, pretty and likable, gives another nice performance here. Taken on it's own this is a really good film, a great 'popcorn' movie for a lazy saturday afternoon. There's nothing wrong with that.....
Rating:
Summary: Well written wartime Hitchcock movie
Review: Well worth owning, I've caught this movie on AMC several times in the last few years. An excellent entertainment from a highly competent craftsman, a piece of Second World War propaganda that has stood the test of time. One of the credited screenwriters was Dorothy Parker, and her wit is evident in much of the dialogue. (The everyman Robert Cummings character to the high-class Nazi Otto Kruger--"We'll fight people like you! Fight to the end! Fight! We'll fight until the cows come home!") Hitchcock was above all a popular artist, (his "Vertigo" notwithstanding), and this is the director at his very best.
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