The dichotomy of a lux physical production with top below-the-line names (Richard Day design; Leon Shamroy cinematography) and a suspiciously short running time (73") is a dead giveaway that this up-to-the-minute WWII drama (out only days after the Pearl Harbor attack) was downgraded mid-production. Meant to follow up on MAN HUNT/’41, Fritz Lang’s putative let’s-assassinate-Hitler thriller, we’re now in London during ‘the Blitz’ as dynamic American news editor Don Ameche begs for exclusive communication lines (cables, pigeons) to beat the competition. But when the scoop of the war comes his way (Hitler’s invading England!), he’s forcibly kept from getting the word out by his own teletype operator (and love interest) Joan Bennett who insists he go by the book and run it by the war censor (John Loder in a nothing role). A zippy piece of early war melodrama (story by Sam Fuller*), it starts well, with loads of turns for various character actors and a young Roddy McDowall, fresh off HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, in harm’s way as rooftop pigeon lookout. Lang found the whole thing too phony, knew the end was a mess and found Ameche miscast and pushing too hard to be Clark Gable. Happy to ankle the pic when he got sick, vet megger Archie Mayo took over and he makes a good show of it, keeping up pace & stylish effects. But he also got stung by the same two problems Lang couldn’t fix. Pretty good all the same, with Bennett in her prime, more devastating than any Nazi bomb.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Great meet-cute for Bennett & Ameche during one of those London wartime BlackOuts. Who but Sam Fuller would come up with love at first sight . . . in the dark.
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