National Board of Review Magazine (Jan 1939 - Jan 1942)

This department seeks to inctude all photoplays of outstanding merit in the artistic development of the screen^ with the object of bringing such pictures to the attention of discriminating readers, under the headings of Exceptwrial and Honorable Mention. The opinions of a committee composed of trained students ajid critics of the screen are combined in a'n impartial review which aims to convey a comprehensive idea of the picture, covering both its excellencies and defects. SECRETARY AND EDITOR, James Shelley Hamilton Otis Ferguson Robert Girotjx Henry Hart Beatrice W. Jaffe COMMITTEE J. K. Paulding^ Chairman John A. McAndrew Frances Taylor Patterson Mary B. Miller Virginia Pattep.son Frank Ward Russell Potter Frederic M. Thrasher Confessions of a Nazi Spy Screenplay hy Milton Krims and John Wexley from an original by Leon G. Turrou, directed hy AnatoJe Litvak, xiJiotograpJied hy 8ol Polito, j]roduc-ed and distributed by Warner Bras-First National. The Cast Ed Renard Edward G. Robinson Schneider Francis Lederer Schlager George Sanders Dr. Kassel Paul Lukas Hilda Dorothy Tree Attorney Kellogg Henry O'Neill Mrs. Schneider Grace Stafford Mrs. Kassel Celia Sibelius Erica Wolff Lya Lys Scotland Yard man James Stephenson Krogman Sig Rumann Philips Fred Tozere OH yes, it's propaganda — propaganda in the sense of expounding or exposing something in such a wa}' that people's feehngs, or judgment, or both, are likely to be influenced on the question involved. The word "propaganda" — originally used for a system of spreading the Christian faith — has, particularly since the war, had much vmpleasanter meanings, some of them even sinister, and we are prone to apply it mostly to things we don't agree with, or dislike, or are afraid of. Beneficent propaganda is more apt to be called "educative," or something equally eudemonistic. But Confessions of a Nasi Spy can hardly escape the term, being as disturbing a film as the studios have turned out in many a long day. It will disturb pro-Nazis and anti-Nazis as well as people who don't want to be disturbed by anything, including those who believe in letting sleeping dogs lie, or if the dogs are not sleeping they are only barking and not likely to bite, or it they do bite they won't bite us. It is a remarkable example of the superior efl^ectiveness of the screen over any other medium for stirring emotions for or against something. The film is based on the records of the Nazi spy trials of a while back, and its technique is craftily devised to differentiate the picture from the usual fiction tale. Without stoiDping to tell who wrote or directed it or what actors are playing in it, it swings straight into its story in March of Time style. With enough documentary material, or material given documentary treatment, to create an efifect of the whole thing being actual news, it gradually builds up the characters of several people who are related in one way or another to Nazi propaganda in America and Nazi espionage in America. After these people and their activities have been established, the Federal Bureau of Investigation comes in, the spies are detected and rounded up, and those who have not escaped or been shanghaied to Germanv are brought to trial and convicted. In essence a fairly simple detective story, but with implications of stunning force. The spy business is pretty unimportant in one way : most of the information forwarded with so much secrecy to Berlin would seem to be available to. any enquiring reporter. But it serves as an authentic frame-work, undeniable as fact, on which to picture the really startling structure of the Nazi system of operating in the United States. This, too, is hardly to be called a secret : the Nazi contempt for democracy is well enough known, and the theory that a German is always a German wherever he happens to \\\&, loyal to the Fatherland above everything else, and we have heard and heard of the Bunds, and of Nazi terrorization, and a little thought might reveal to any intelligent person that Nazi principles must inevitably 13