Veronica Lake had a hot streak matched by few other actresses in the early 1940s - she became a star very quickly with I Wanted Wings then appeared in a series of classics - Sullivans Travels, I Married a Witch, This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key. Her hair was a natural phenomenon, but the government asked her to cut it off because apparently it was harming productivity; she did, then gave hints she had potential as a dramatic actress in So Proudly We Hail.
This movie was her big shot as a proper drama star - it flopped and she was shuttled off to comedies and noirs. It's a crap movie but it's not really her fault - yes she's not very good, uncomfortable with an accent and not really capable of conveying too much depth, but lots of other people are bad too. Franchot Tone is less convincing as a Pom than Lake is as an Austrian refugee; the kid actor David Leland is truly shocking; John Sutton, a super wet drip got on my nerves something fierce as Tone's brother; the actors playing Lake's fellow agents all ham it up. There's some painful plucky Britons acting during an air raid.
There is novelty in Tone playing a conscientious objector but it also means he's passive for most of the running time, unaware his wife is up to no good. There's no chemistry between him and Lake - you never feel he loves her, or she feels anything for him other than contempt. Frank Tuttle's direction lacks atmosphere. And what's with that ending where Tone murders Lake - okay yes she's tried to kill him but she's run out of bullets so its murder - then cut to him happily flying in a bomber? This film is more irritating the longer it goes on.
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