Fly-By-Night

A 39 Steps clone but not a bad one by any means. Richard Carlson plays a doctor who finds himself on the run accused of murder, which leads to Nazi business of course because it's 1942. I believe the term often used in wrongfully accused stories is "through no fault of his own." Well that's not the case here. Carlson's character is a total idiot who makes one mistake after another. I don't blame the police for suspecting him. The guy was acting guilty as sin.

Despite the writing for him, Carlson does a fine job. He's a likable guy even when he's manhandling half-dressed women, waving guns around at people without provocation, or robbing a sweet old couple. The rest of the cast is even better. No, not Nancy Kelly. She's pretty bland. I mean the list of notable character actors in this - Walter Kingsford, Cy Kendall, Miles Mander, Martin Kosleck, Albert Bassermann among others. Robert Siodmak directs and does a fine job with one of his earliest American movies. There's one scene near the end where things get dark in a shocking way that really surprised me. It's a tease of what would come later with Siodmak's film noir successes.