Secret Command

This film is a slight departure for its star, Pat O'Brien, because in this film he is an undercover agent trying to expose saboteurs at a ship-building plant. He gets a job doing "grunt work" but really is outside his element--since he knows nothing about ships or machinery. His brother, Chester Morris, has no idea why Pat wants this job, but reluctantly hires him. It's obvious there is some bad blood between them, though exactly what it is doesn't ever get explained. However, Morris and the rest of the guys at the plant give him a pretty hard time until he eventually proves himself. To make the ruse more believable, Pat is set up with an instant family--a pretend wife and two cute little pretend kids who are actually war orphans. Over time, Pat can't help but love the pretend family--and looking at them, I could certainly see why.

At the plant, almost no one knows O'Brien is an agent. His contact there is Wallace Ford--who has already started to infiltrate the gang of Nazis planning on sabotaging something--exactly what and when are unknown. How this all comes together in the end is very exciting and kept my attention. In fact, the movie was so well-written and tense that it managed to somehow rise above the genre and is STILL an excellent drama...and I LOVED the ending even though it was a tad "schmaltzy".

Government agent Pat O'Brien goes undercover at a shipyard where his estranged brother Chester Morris works. Pat's trying to root out Nazi saboteurs. Part of his cover is that stunning Carole Landis pretends to be his wife. Something tells me they didn't have to twist Pat's arm to take this assignment. The look on Pat's face when he comes home to see Carole in her tight-fitting dress is priceless. Well paced WW2 espionage movie with a decent script and likable leads. Very nice supporting cast includes Ruth Warrick, Barton MacLane, Tom Tully, and Wallace Ford. One of those little hidden gems you come across on TCM every once in awhile. A must-see for Carole Landis fans.

Enjoyed viewing Carole Landis in the 1941 picture,"I Wake Up Screaming" and greatly enjoyed her performance in this film where she was so young, pretty and happy as a wife, (Jill McGann) to her husband Sam Gallagher, (Pat O'Brien) and a sweet funny little girl and boy to complete their lovely family. Sam Gallagher had a brother played by Chester Morris, (Jeff Gallagher) who did not see each other for years and wound up meeting each other in a ship yard which was building an aircraft carrier during WW II. Jeff Gallagher becomes suspicious of his brother Sam and for some reason does not believe he is married to Jill McGann and wonders just what his brother is up to. Jeff does not trust his brother and they both have a good fight in which both of the brothers get all beaten up. This is a great spy picture, but I still think Pat O'Brien was too old to act with Carole Landis or even marry her. Good Spy Film in 1944.

Pat O'Brien shows up on the docks, down and out and in need of a job. His brother Chester Morris, construction manager, reluctantly hires him on. Very soon we discover that O'Brien's real job here is not building ships.

This WWII spy thriller has a bit of romance thrown in and features an assortment of characters whose personal and wartime lives often overlap: Carole Landis and Ruth Warrick are both quite good as women doing jobs that take precedence--at least during wartime--over their personal lives or relationships. Landis is a fellow agent who poses as O'Brien's wife; Warrick is Morris's assistant in the shipyard office. Morris would like to marry Warrick but she may still have feelings for her old flame, O'Brien--whose professional regard for Landis may grow into something more.

Wallace Ford, always fun to watch, is part of "the team"--his main job being spotting Nazis at the shipyard. Barton MacLane is excellent as a rough-edged yard worker whose eventual friendship with O'Brien is hard fought.

The plot is solid: O'Brien and Ford keep an eye out for saboteurs while Morris and Warrick, realizing that O'Brien is no ordinary dock worker, keep an eye on him. There's some comic relief that isn't too funny, unfortunately, and also some cute scenes involving a couple of war orphans that just aren't real convincing.

It's a great role for O'Brien, though, as that rugged American everyman who doesn't say much but performs awesome feats.

There are some great scenes at the wharf with shootouts and manhunting and some very hard fights with sledge knuckles and some water incidents - the greatest scene is the rescuing of a man falling down from a great height, and the greatest combat is also in the water with one man drowning, but everything is rather predictable. It's about sabotaging a wharf building ships for transporting American soldiers over seas, and the Nazis are really bad guys, not hesitating to shoot to kill. Fortunately there are also some women involved (the beautiful Carole Landis) and some very sweet kids, who contribute in saving the film. It is worth watching but only barely, mainly for the dramatic fights and incidents at the wharf, but any propaganda film of 1943 could of course only end one way.