Patrolling the Ether

Patrolling the Ether (1944)

** (out of 4)

Pretty weak entry in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series takes a look at how foreign agents are using radio broadcasts to stay in touch and how the U.S. government came up with the RID (Radio Intelligence Division) to try and locate them. That's pretty much all the "story" you get here and while the Crime Does Not Pay series is my favorite of all the MGM dramas this one here is without question the worst I've seen. This isn't a really awful movie but at the same time it comes across rather boring without an inch of energy to be found. One of the biggest problems is that there's just not too much that happens because there are so many drawn out sequences where we see the agents just driving around hoping to pick up on one of the signals. This constant driving around and not accomplishing anything might have been a reality but it doesn't translate to the screen very well. There are two long sequences where nothing much happens and one can't help but grow tired of the lack of action going on. The director doesn't manage to build up any suspense and there's never a drop of drama. There's no question that when the war started every studio transformed their shorts to fit war subjects but this thing here certainly doesn't belong in the series. We don't get the narration that normally opens these shorts and in the end the entire thing is worth skipping.