646f9e108c Sam Gallagher (<a href=">Pat O'Brien), a former foreign correspondent and now a United States Government agent, gets a job through his brother Jeff (<a href=">Chester Morris), whom he has not seen in seven years, in the Seaboard Shipyards as a "pileback" in order to track down a gang of Nazi spies who are plotting to sabotage the shipyards. Jill McCann (<a href=">Carole Landis),an FBI agent, poses as Sam's wife, and two children, 6-year-old Paul (<a href=">Richard Lyon), and 4-year-old-Joan (<a href=">Carol Nugent),complete his "cover family." THe set-up looks fishy to Jeff, and he imparts his suspicions to Lea Damoran (<a href=">Ruth Warrick, the girl both brothers had courted in the old days. Meanwhile, Sam works hard and makes friends with most of the men in his crew. He gets a line on the saboteurs and one by one, their identities are revealed to him. The Nazis, led by Brownell (<a href=">Tom Tully)who, in reality, is Colonel Von Braun of the German Gestapo, plan to blow up the yard while an aircraft carrier is docked there. Jeff's noisy investigations bid to intentionally hamper Sam's plans to abort the Nazi plan. Secret agent Pat O'Brien poses as a dock worker at a navy ship building factory as a method of tracking down a band of saboteurs, pretty much right under his nose in this World War II bit of propaganda. On the way, he finds a "wife" (Carole Landis) to give him cover and keep fifth columnists from finding out that he was once a foreign correspondent. Landis is his wife in cover only, but ex girlfriend Ruth Warrick suspects that the marriage is a sham. As the clock ticks down, accidents happen on the ship building site, particularly a nasty one to Obrien's estranged brother (Chester Morris) who had great reluctance in hiring O'Brien in the first place.<br/><br/>Filled with action and plenty of thrills in a relatively short running time, this is typical war propaganda with one dimensional villains and tough talking but completely patriotic factory workers. Barton Maclane is particularly memorable as the aging bully who goes out of his way to fight with O'Brien but ends up a loyal drinking buddy after their dukes are put up. Fans of "All My Children" will be delighted to see Phoebe Tyler Wallingford in a nice role. There are a few surprising twists in this, but they don't necessarily involve the war intrigue, but the equally important romantic subplot. "Secret Command" wastes what must have been a fairly large budget and high-power cast on a predictable story with little suspense or drama.<br/><br/>Pat O'Brien is miscast in the leading man role, failing to convey the quiet masculine strength and sexuality called for here.<br/><br/>The home-life scenes, with the European orphans, designed to tug at our heart strings, don't quite work either, and detract from the drama of the hunt for Nazis in the shipyard. And our hero is never really put in any danger.<br/><br/>I have a fondness for the World War II propaganda flicks, but even I didn't warm to this one. What I generally like about the propaganda films is that they have some edge to them, since they are dealing with life and death stuff. "Secret Command" seems to go light on these elements.<br/><br/>A posted comment questioned "Secret Command" winning a special effects Oscar, and I found myself wondering about that as well. I concluded that the underwater shots, and the (apparent) location shots on the crane were considered "special" effects in the 1940s. (Today we assume special effects relates to only fabricated shots or images.)
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