Espionage Agent

Espionage Agent
Espionage Agent
Directed by	Lloyd Bacon
Screenplay by	Robert Buckner; Warren Duff; Frank Donaghue ; Michael Fessier
Starring	Joel McCrea; Brenda Marshall; Jeffrey Lynn; George Bancroft
Cinematography	Charles Rosher
Edited by	Ralph Dawson
Music by	Adolph Deutsch
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	September 22, 1939 (U.S.);
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Espionage Agent is a pre–World War II spy melodrama produced by Hal B. Wallis in 1939. Directed by Lloyd Bacon, Espionage Agent, like many Warner Bros. movies, clearly identifies the Germans as the enemy. This was unlike many other movie studios during this period that did not want to antagonize foreign governments.

The film was released on September 22, 1939, the day after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Neutrality Act allowing "Cash and Carry" provisions for countries fighting Germany and a little over four months after another Warner Bros. anti-Nazi film Confessions of a Nazi Spy.^[1]

Plot[edit]

The film opens with a description of the Black Tom explosion of a munitions supply located in Jersey City on the Hudson River. The explosion, which occurred during World War I was an act of sabotage by German agents.

Barry Corvall (Joel McCrea), the son of a recently deceased American diplomat, has just got married. When he discovers that his new wife (Brenda Marshall) is a possible enemy agent, he resigns from the diplomatic service to go undercover to expose an espionage ring planning to destroy American industrial capability before war breaks out.

Traveling on a train in Germany, Corvall attempts to steal a briefcase with documents in an attempt to prove that the Nazis have been infiltrating vital industrial centers in the United States. With the help of his wife, he tries to foil the plans of the Nazi spy (Martin Kosleck).

Cast[edit]

Joel McCrea as Barry Corvall
Brenda Marshall as Brenda Ballard
Jeffrey Lynn as Lowell Warrington
George Bancroft as Dudley Garrett
Stanley Ridges as Hamilton Peyton
James Stephenson as Dr. Anton Rader
Howard C. Hickman as Walter Forbes
Martin Kosleck as Karl Mullen
Nana Bryant as Mrs. Corvall
Rudolph Anders as Paul Strawn
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski as Dr. Helm
Lucien Prival as Decker
Addison Richards as Bruce Corvall
Edwin Stanley as Secretary of State
Granville Bates as Phineas T. O'Grady

Bans[edit]

The film was banned in Norway in January 1940.^[2] The Norwegian authorities did not provide any reason for the ban just issuing the following statement: The film above is not approved for public viewing in Norway.^[2]

References[edit]

^ Michael E. Birdwell, Celluloid Soldiers - Warner Bros.'s Campaign against Nazism ISBN 0-8147-9871-3 (New York University Press, 1999)
^ ^a ^b Rolf Werenskjold (2019). "German pressure: Spy films and political censorship in Norway, 1914–40". Journal of Scandinavian Cinema. 9 (3): 366. doi:10.1386/jsca_00009_1.

External links[edit]

Espionage Agent at IMDb
Espionage Agent at AllMovie
Espionage Agent at the TCM Movie Database
Espionage Agent at the American Film Institute Catalog

[1] Michael E. Birdwell, Celluloid Soldiers - Warner Bros.'s Campaign against Nazism ISBN 0-8147-9871-3 (New York University Press, 1999)

[rolf-2] Rolf Werenskjold (2019). "German pressure: Spy films and political censorship in Norway, 1914–40". Journal of Scandinavian Cinema. 9 (3): 366. doi:10.1386/jsca_00009_1.

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