Shonky but fun WW2 propaganda effort with Bela Lugosi has a doctor who is killing off a bunch of American fifth columnists helping the Japanese. So Bela is a goodie? No he isn’t, really, because he’s a Nazi. It’s just those Axis allies don’t get along. Bela is in strong form - he is a very smart villain, who can hypnotise his enemies, is a brilliant surgeon and who is cunning enough to make two victims shoot each other. You’re glad he’s spending all his energy on attacking his own allies rather than against us. I love the idea of these all American businessmen actually being Japanese agents after plastic surgery (we see how this happened in a hilarious flashback at the end to Japan – it might have been better to put this at the beginning of the film). Also funny that plastic surgeon Lugosi is thrown in gaol along with a Lugosi lookalike. Clayton Moore plays the male juvenile who asks the ingénue if he’ll marry him “so I can beat you up”. Ah, sweet banter.NB this was one of a number of war films around this time obssessed with fifth columnists eg Sabotage - though when one considers what happened in Norway and France, that's perhaps not surprising.
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